The Country Nurse Remembers by Mary J. Macleod

Author:Mary J. Macleod
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781950691302
Publisher: Arcade
Published: 2020-01-21T16:00:00+00:00

Good Intentions

It seemed that Mum had never got on very well with her mother, Grandma S. They were very different. Mum prided herself on being down to earth, whereas Grandma said Mum was living in another era.

Grandma had been brought up in a big, fairly wealthy family on the Isle of Wight. I don’t think the family liked her marrying Granddad, who was a Royal Marine, but not a very high-ranking one. Grandma seemed to cling to old-fashioned ways and did not realise that money was short and rationing was a problem. She wanted fancy food and liked posh clothes and expensive perfumes.

She did see that some of the things Mum expected of me were unreasonable, however. I heard her say this to Mum one day, but I knew it would do more harm than good. She went on to say that it was ridiculous for a child to have to knock on doors and wait to be told to come in in her own home. Mum pursed her lips and told me to go and play. Then there was a lot of shouting, which I could hear from the garden.

Later, when I was in the other room, I heard Granddad, who hardly even spoke to me, say that I should not be banished to the other room or sent off to bed at such a ‘ridiculously early hour’. I know they were trying to help me, but I also knew that Mum would resent their interference—just as she had when Grandpa had tried to help me.

Mum was very angry and told Dad what they had said in such a way that he thought it was just interference, too. He always thought that Mum knew best about everything to do with my upbringing and didn’t seem to notice that she was always telling me off, never praising me, sending me away to the other room or the garden or to bed, or making me spend Saturdays doing housework. He just did not notice that I hardly spoke when Mum was around except to say ‘yes’ or ‘thank you’ and so on. So he sided with Mum against Grandma and Granddad, saying that they were in ‘his house’ and they should not interfere.

Mum was very cross with everyone except Dad.

‘You realise that all this is your fault, don’t you?’ she said to me.

As always, I had to say, ‘Yes Mum. I’m sorry, Mum.’ But I couldn’t see how it could be my fault.

Dad looked at her a bit oddly but said nothing.

How I wished that Harry was still living with us! But he would have been in Dad’s house too, of course, so he might have been told he was just interfering, as well.

I must have been very stupid because only a few days after this I asked if I could write to Auntie Jinny. Why did I not wait a week or two?

‘Why?’ asked Mum.

‘I’d just like to,’ I replied.

‘What are you going to say to her?’

‘Um … just about the war effort at school and things.

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