THE NURSE.

Digger (Invercargill RSA), Issue 18, 16 July 1920, Page 12

THE NURSE.

(By W. A. Crawford.)

A RETROSPECT.

Here in this hospital I have seen innumerable patients passing to and fro. For four years I have watched a constant stream of people coming and going. All kinds and conditions of humanity, some with kind faces and glad hearts, cheering up others whenever they could, casting sunshine around them on every side, and whenever possible doing good. Others with sorrow upon their faces, weighed down with a great heaviness under the yoke of sickness. Day after day, year after year, they come and go. Men and maidens, young and old, pass through here, and I see and know them all. And it oftens happens that in some serious cases, when there does not seem any particle of hop,e and no offer of comfort could be given, that the patient would quite" suddenly recover and go home again, well and' hearty. While others, where the symptoms seemed not at all dangerous, with little or no need for alarm, there occurred a sudden collapse and all is over! "Out, out, brief candle." I can remember a returned soldier, a really splendid fellow, who was very name at first. He could walk just a little, but he w'as always very lively and cheery, and most grateful for all we did to help him. "Number 33," he always liked to be called. That was his cot number and he said his mate's always called him by his other official number all through the war. He liked to deal in numbers in preference to names, they were shorter and saved time. He looked so happy and well- the day he was discharged and said, "Good-bye, Nurse, I'm going to make a bit and come back and marry you some day," at which I only laughed and said, "Well, keep well now whatever you do." And how much we missed him after he had left. Like ships that pass in the night, with us a while and then go into silence. And I recall the young mother of three little girls. She was very ill and her children used to come to see her, sometimes when she was so bad she hardly knew them and they would look with round, earnest eyes at everything, and wonder what was ' going to happen ! We were all glad when she recovered swiftly and went back home again to her litle girls. Yes! I often think I could write an interesting story of all the different sighto I have seen, and the different people I have met here, some of the noblest characters amongst them were those who have gone beyond recall. As Dante, says, "Natural death is, as it wepe, a haven and a rest to us after long navigation, and the

noble soul is like a good mariner ; for her, when he draws near the port, lowers his sail and enters in softly, with gentle steerage." And it is strange to-night as I sit here, after so long a time, that my thoughts go back to "Number 33." I think I have almost forgotten his name but not himself. I wonder if he will ever come back again? Yes! Somehow I think he wilh