| Description | Letter from Amelia Nyasa Laws, Chambéry, to her relatives, regarding finding the work tiring in hot weather; description of walk home and local poultry; Aunt is very fond of the little flat; she is doing very well buying provisions at the market, picking up essential French; the pattern of their days; work progressing satisfactorily; meeting the physician, who calls occasionally and seems very pleasant; Dr. Chiron looks after open wounds and the physician everything else; there is also a military doctor, Dr. Julien, who spends most of his time playing board games with the patients when he has done their dressings; Dr. Chiron is very busy but devotes much time to the hospital and is highly thought of by his colleagues as a surgeon; he is thorough, which sometimes makes him feared, but it is a good thing; the place is well-organised; Mlle. Vernaz is good at matching patients with nurses; she has good humour and is just and fair; Amelia has had a fight with Loreau about time allocated for massage; he would rather go to the mécano [the massage machine]; Mlle. Vernaz is stern with him, as he has already received a number of favours but still considers that he is hard done by; he freely admits he is spoiled and intends to spoil his son, too; the younger patients are always easier to deal with; Piquet is 'an unpolished diamond' and brings life to his ward, a joker but willing to give any assistance; another patient, bedridden, kills flies but in such a way that he keeps his fellow patients laughing all the time; Picquet's arm is nearly straight now '(he has two medals for having taken a flag from the Germans all by himself)'; Allemand, the skeleton with the amputated leg, is eating a little better and putting on weight; Philippe can now put his heel on the ground; Boursier can take a few steps without a stick; Raby is now walking without pain; the men are willing for progress and the nurses are cheerful. [Letter breaks off without signature] |