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Back Time to Say Goodbye Save as PDF
Chapters (76)
  1. Cover
  2. Title Page
  3. Dedication
  4. Prologue
  5. Chapter One
  6. Chapter Two
  7. Chapter Three
  8. Chapter Four
  9. Chapter Five
  10. Chapter Six
  11. Chapter Seven
  12. Chapter Eight
  13. Chapter Nine
  14. Chapter Ten
  15. Chapter Eleven
  16. Chapter Twelve
  17. Chapter Thirteen
  18. Chapter Fourteen
  19. Chapter Fifteen
  20. Chapter Sixteen
  21. Chapter Seventeen
  22. Chapter Eighteen
  23. Chapter Nineteen
  24. Chapter Twenty
  25. Chapter Twenty-One
  26. Chapter Twenty-Two
  27. Chapter Twenty-Three
  28. Chapter Twenty-Four
  29. Chapter Twenty-Five
  30. Chapter Twenty-Six
  31. Chapter Twenty-Seven
  32. Chapter Twenty-Eight
  33. Chapter Twenty-Nine
  34. Chapter Thirty
  35. Chapter Thirty-One
  36. Chapter Thirty-Two
  37. Chapter Thirty-Three
  38. Chapter Thirty-Four
  39. Chapter Thirty-Five
  40. Chapter Thirty-Six
  41. Chapter Thirty-Seven
  42. Chapter Thirty-Eight
  43. Chapter Thirty-Nine
  44. Chapter Forty
  45. Chapter Forty-One
  46. Chapter Forty-Two
  47. Chapter Forty-Three
  48. Chapter Forty-Four
  49. Chapter Forty-Five
  50. Chapter Forty-Six
  51. Chapter Forty-Seven
  52. Chapter Forty-Eight
  53. Chapter Forty-Nine
  54. Chapter Fifty
  55. Chapter Fifty-One
  56. Chapter Fifty-Two
  57. Chapter Fifty-Three
  58. Chapter Fifty-Four
  59. Chapter Fifty-Five
  60. Chapter Fifty-Six
  61. Chapter Fifty-Seven
  62. Chapter Fifty-Eight
  63. Acknowledgements
  64. Also by Rosie Goodwin
  65. About Rosie Goodwin
  66. Welcome to the world of Rosie Goodwin!
  67. A Letter from Rosie Goodwin
  68. Cissie’s Roast Chicken
  69. An extract from Rosie Goodwin’s next novel
  70. Prologue
  71. Chapter One
  72. Love Rosie Goodwin?
  73. The Days of the Week collection
  74. Mothering Sunday
  75. Tales from Memory Lane
  76. Memory Lane Advert

Matron met her, delighted to have her back, and led her into her office where she warned her, ‘You will be working on the men’s ward today, Nurse Branning, but I should warn you there are some very bad cases in there. Truthfully, all we can do for some of them is offer them palliative care, poor souls. Others you will find have been horrifically injured. The military hos­pitals on the coast are full to bursting with new patients arriving daily so every bed we have is full. The patients are then transferred to whichever hospital has room for them. Every one of the nurses and doctors we have left without exception is exhausted, which is why I am so delighted to welcome you back, even if it is on shorter hours. But now, if you would like to report to the ward sister, I’m sure she will be happy to go through the patients’ charts with you.’

Kathy nodded and after hanging her cloak in the small nurses’ staff room she went straight to the ward where the sister was waiting for her.

She too greeted Kathy effusively before going through each patient’s notes with her.

‘The young man in the second bed on the left isn’t expected to last the day,’ she told her regretfully. ‘He suffered major burns to most of his body, so we are keeping him heavily sedated, so he won’t be in too much pain. There is nothing else we can do for him.’

Kathy glanced towards the young man but all she could see was a head swathed in bandages above the sheets, although thankfully he appeared to be sleeping and showed no signs of distress.

‘In the next bed is Mr Jakes. He has had both his legs and one arm amputated after standing on a land mine.’ The sister shook her head. ‘I have every reason to believe that he will pull through but the problem there is he doesn’t want to. He considers himself less of a man now and won’t even allow his wife to come and see him.’

She then briefly went through the rest of the names on the list and although Kathy had expected things to be bad, nothing could have prepared her for some of the injuries she was hearing about, and to think that David had to deal with this, and worse, on a daily basis! Even so she was determined to do her best for each and every one of them and soon she was back in her stride and it was as if she had never been away.

After a very short lunch break, Kathy returned to the ward to find the young man with burns had taken a turn for the worse and began to cry for his mother.