| Description | Letter from Amelia Nyasa Laws, Valence, to her relatives, regarding odd silence in the annexe; the wards are like furniture stores; extreme cold in the building; they have a fire for the officers and one in the kitchen, and an extra one in the salle de pansement; Chauvel, Allard and Siclet are having treatment there, though Chauvel had an internal chill; he has been eating improperly cooked beans in the Séminaire; he and Amelia went to visit Lemoigne but he had died during the night; he was the eldest of ten children, and was afraid that his parents would not accept him home with a hand amputated; visit to his body in the mortuary chapel; Girou was able to attend the funeral but Amelia was due back at the 201 and had to leave; visit to Pinet who is dying; the paralysis is spreading and preventing him from retaining food; Dr. Regad, the médecin-chef of the annexe (Dr. Lavoiepierre is the médecin-traitant) died this week and his father-in-law died ten minutes later in the house next door; Amelia and the nun went to the funeral; it was expensive, grand, and very musical; Mme. Soureillat has been summoned to Montpellier to visit an ex-infirmier who is suffering from tuberculosis and has no relatives; she did not tell the bureau at the 201 that she was going and left no instructions for Amelia; some of the paperwork she should have done was missing for the inspection of the officers' ward this week; problems with administration for two patients being treated at the Hôpital Général but staying at the annexe, and another being treated privately by Dr. Lavoiepierre; 'Giacobucci, a Corsican, was operated at Lyon on Wed. and goes twice weekly for treatment there, doing the rest himself. He prefers to live here because were he at Lyon his young wife would come and see him!'; Captain Dobinson calls him 'the pig'; Mme. Soureillat was annoyed on her return at being asked to complete the paperwork; in the end Amelia had to do most of it anyway, except that of Giacobucci, a friend of Mme. Soureillat whose condition seems to be a lie; he evades all inspections; Captain Dobinson is to leave for an English hospital at Marseilles; he can now walk mostly without a limp; Robinet's departure; writing to Lemoigne's mother; visit of Miss Bennett, still offering to have her as replacement at the Hôpital Général; she might be able to compete for the post with her introduction; the reward would be 'board, lodging and 60 francs a month, which is the nurse's regular salary yonder. What a pittance for a municipal hospital to give! No wonder they get untrained workers of the lower class! Military nurses get the double of that'; she is not so bothered about leaving the annexe now that the men have gone; Robinet gave her a macramé bag and Chauvel gave her a clasp and white silk to make a bag of her choice, for concert use; the piano is now in the small ward. Added on the top copy but not on the carbon: letters of acknowledgement from Dr. Michaud and Mlle. Vernaz; the 103 closes in April. [Letter breaks off without signature] |