Well I did it, I bought the book written by Dave Eldergill about Derby Hospitals. The kindle version was corrupt, so I splashed out on a shiny paperback version. I read it an an evening and wished there was more, hint hint Dave!
It was great to be transported back to a time I remember fondly and to know that someone else did too. If you read my previous blog you will know it was also a heartbreaking time as I never qualified as a nurse due to a back injury and poor health. Who knows our paths may have crossed somewhere along the way, we idolised the 3rd year students. No one in my current life knows about the life I had then, except my Mum and that was only what I told her!
Almost 30 years on I still think of it most days. Where has the time gone? How did I get to be so old and yet still not be any further forward? My husband says I shouldn’t live in the past, but how do you do anything else when the present is hard work and you can’t plan for a future?
Although it was hard, it was nice to be transported back to a time when I could do things and was making progress in my life even if it was cruelly snatched away in the end. It was good to read that someone else had similar experiences and similar feelings about the place and the job.
It seems that Dave is no longer a nurse either, I don’t know why, but it’s not the same job these days. I have no idea how he managed to train whilst having a young family. I can’t imagine being able to do it now and my daughter is 11, but I guess if I was well it would fit into life somehow. My husband says they do train older people to be nurses, which he thinks is a bit of a waste as they don’t work for long enough after training. Even people as old as me apparently. I can start tomorrow if they want me! In my dreams of course.