Silent in an Evil Time Read Online Free Page B
Author: Jack Batten
qualities that Luckes was unable to detect. If Edith weren't methodical, observant, and reliable, she would never have succeeded as Matron of the Brussels clinic.
It may have been that Luckes used her blunt reports on the nurses to spur those she criticized so sharply to higher accomplishments. But it's beyond question that Edith admired Luckes as an administrator and used her as the model when Edith later became the Matron in Brussels. Edith seems to have had respect, and even affection, for Luckes. Over the years, she stayed in touch with her by mail, keeping Luckes up to date on her life after the London. Edith's correspondence had a friendly and confiding tone. One letter in July 1901 reported an incident of a man robbing Edith of her money in a London street. Other letters asked Luckes for help in finding better nursing posts. Luckes always responded, and it was she who arranged Edith's first nursing position in January 1901.
The job was as night superintendent at the St. Pancras Infirmary in the middle of London, and it called for enormous stamina. Apart from the physical demands that went with working through the night and trying to sleep in the daytime, Edith treated the most impoverished and desperate patients. St. Pancras was a Poor Law Institution, dedicated to serving the penniless people of the community. As ever, Edith was attentive and sympathetic to those in her care.
When she won a better paying job two years later, it was once again in a Poor Law Institution in London, this time at the Shoreditch Infirmary, where she was made Assistant Matron. Among her patients at Shoreditch,Edith became a favorite of the costermongers – traders who sold all sorts of goods from carts, which they pulled through London's streets. Costermongers wore clothes embroidered with pearl buttons, and they entertained their customers with jokes and funny patter. Despite the colorful costumes and outgoing personalities, costermongers lived difficult lives, working long days exposed to every illness. When they entered Shoreditch for medical treatment, they asked for Edith, the Assistant Matron who treated them with humor and compassion.
After four years at Shoreditch, Edith resigned to take a four-month trip through Europe with a nurse named Eveline Dickinson. It was the longest holiday of Edith's life, and when she returned refreshed, she got a temporary position as a nurse in one of the clinics known as Queen's District Homes in industrial Manchester, a city in the Midlands. Many of her patients were poorly paid miners who had been injured in accidents down in the mines. These men adopted Edith as their favorite, just as the costermongers had at Shoreditch. Someone who knew of Edith's work with both groups gave her a title that everyone in Manchester picked up. Edith was known as “the poor man's Nightingale.”
When the Matron at the Home fell ill, Edith was appointed to fill the job until she recovered. But Edith knew that whatever position she had at the Home was temporary. She could be out of work at any time. Since she was already forty-one years old, she worried about her future. Surely, she thought, she had shown enough talent as a nurse to win a steady position in a respected hospital. Over the years, she had applied for senior jobs at three or four hospitals, but she just missed out – the second choice on everyone's list. In Manchester, she was growing frustrated.
Then, unexpectedly, from a place she had never thought of, the perfect job was presented to her. It was to change Edith's life.
Dr. Antoine Depage of Brussels was often difficult and demanding, but he was a medical pioneer and visionary. Not only did he open the first institution in Belgium to train nurses, but he had the foresight to hire Edith as the first Matron.
(The Royal London Hospital Archives)
Chapter Five
EDITH TAKES CHARGE
D r. Antoine Depage of Brussels envied England's nursing system. A surgeon who ranked among the finest in Europe, Depage
It may have been that Luckes used her blunt reports on the nurses to spur those she criticized so sharply to higher accomplishments. But it's beyond question that Edith admired Luckes as an administrator and used her as the model when Edith later became the Matron in Brussels. Edith seems to have had respect, and even affection, for Luckes. Over the years, she stayed in touch with her by mail, keeping Luckes up to date on her life after the London. Edith's correspondence had a friendly and confiding tone. One letter in July 1901 reported an incident of a man robbing Edith of her money in a London street. Other letters asked Luckes for help in finding better nursing posts. Luckes always responded, and it was she who arranged Edith's first nursing position in January 1901.
The job was as night superintendent at the St. Pancras Infirmary in the middle of London, and it called for enormous stamina. Apart from the physical demands that went with working through the night and trying to sleep in the daytime, Edith treated the most impoverished and desperate patients. St. Pancras was a Poor Law Institution, dedicated to serving the penniless people of the community. As ever, Edith was attentive and sympathetic to those in her care.
When she won a better paying job two years later, it was once again in a Poor Law Institution in London, this time at the Shoreditch Infirmary, where she was made Assistant Matron. Among her patients at Shoreditch,Edith became a favorite of the costermongers – traders who sold all sorts of goods from carts, which they pulled through London's streets. Costermongers wore clothes embroidered with pearl buttons, and they entertained their customers with jokes and funny patter. Despite the colorful costumes and outgoing personalities, costermongers lived difficult lives, working long days exposed to every illness. When they entered Shoreditch for medical treatment, they asked for Edith, the Assistant Matron who treated them with humor and compassion.
After four years at Shoreditch, Edith resigned to take a four-month trip through Europe with a nurse named Eveline Dickinson. It was the longest holiday of Edith's life, and when she returned refreshed, she got a temporary position as a nurse in one of the clinics known as Queen's District Homes in industrial Manchester, a city in the Midlands. Many of her patients were poorly paid miners who had been injured in accidents down in the mines. These men adopted Edith as their favorite, just as the costermongers had at Shoreditch. Someone who knew of Edith's work with both groups gave her a title that everyone in Manchester picked up. Edith was known as “the poor man's Nightingale.”
When the Matron at the Home fell ill, Edith was appointed to fill the job until she recovered. But Edith knew that whatever position she had at the Home was temporary. She could be out of work at any time. Since she was already forty-one years old, she worried about her future. Surely, she thought, she had shown enough talent as a nurse to win a steady position in a respected hospital. Over the years, she had applied for senior jobs at three or four hospitals, but she just missed out – the second choice on everyone's list. In Manchester, she was growing frustrated.
Then, unexpectedly, from a place she had never thought of, the perfect job was presented to her. It was to change Edith's life.
Dr. Antoine Depage of Brussels was often difficult and demanding, but he was a medical pioneer and visionary. Not only did he open the first institution in Belgium to train nurses, but he had the foresight to hire Edith as the first Matron.
(The Royal London Hospital Archives)
Chapter Five
EDITH TAKES CHARGE
D r. Antoine Depage of Brussels envied England's nursing system. A surgeon who ranked among the finest in Europe, Depage
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