Some Sunny Day by Madge Lambert

Author:Madge Lambert
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Pan Macmillan UK

17

Christmas in Chittagong

Matron Ferguson had made it clear from the start that all her VAD and QA (Queen Alexandra’s Royal Army Nursing Corps) sisters would be working on Christmas Day. The boys in the wards had to come first in all circumstances. Madge didn’t mind; the girls had been planning a good old-fashioned British Christmas since November. In a strange way Matron’s edict was comforting for Madge and Vera, who had looked at each other in amusement when they had heard that Christmas for nurses had again been cancelled. It reminded them of their time as trainees at Stoke Mandeville when Sister Crowley terrified even the doctors into making an appearance on the big day.

We’re in a different hospital in a different country and on a different continent but it is still the same for us nurses, Madge thought, when she had a closer look at the rotas pinned up in the mess hall. But she was so surprised that she had to look again. Her night duty had been due to begin the day before 25 December, but she had been put on the early shift from the morning of Christmas Day.

‘You know what that means?’ she said to Vera. ‘I can see Basil in the evening after all, and the way the days fall, we’ll also be able to go out for dinner on New Year’s Day for his twenty-second birthday.’

‘Forget his birthday, you still haven’t told us how you got on at the dance he invited you to at the Movements mess,’ said Vera, who was shushed as the Christmas planning meeting started. A little present for each and every patient was suggested, but ruled out because the number of troops arriving and those leaving varied enormously from week to week. A Christmas card each was vetoed for the same reason and Vera’s idea of having ‘a hamper or two sent over from Fortnum and Mason’ got the response it deserved. Eventually they agreed that Phyl’s suggestion of an English roast for Christmas lunch would be a treat above all else. They decided that the menu would be discussed with the kitchen staff to guarantee a meal that would remind one and all of home.

Roast beef was vetoed because of the upset that would be caused if a sacred cow suddenly disappeared, and nobody had even seen a turkey since they arrived in Chittagong. Madge pointed out that there seemed to be large numbers of scraggy-looking chickens scratching around the grounds. ‘What about roast chicken with bread sauce, roast potatoes and plenty of veg and gravy?’ she suggested.

56 IGH treated all nationalities and religions together but there were concerns that Hindus and Muslims might be upset by the celebration of a Christian religious festival in the wards. However, Sister Blossom pointed out that there had not been a problem over Christmas when she had worked in similar hospitals. ‘The main thing is to make sure all the patients have a good time,’ she said.

With the next nurses’ shift approaching rapidly the mini-meeting broke up.

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