I dropped into Ruby’s early this afternoon to chat about this and that. Her friend Shirley was there and Margie also came in for a cuppa.
The topics skipped over this and that – I shared my news of the photo challenge and how I had bought a creepy ‘anatomically correct’ doll.
Ruby started to smile and then told us a story that my doll reminded her of.
She was five years old and her mother had given both Ruby and her sister, Sylvie, a Kewpie Doll! Very exciting. Dolls and such toys were few and far between. They were little nude dolls and Ruby told us at that age she was just becoming aware of all the body bits she had, eyes, nose ears… and a couple of other holes.
By this time we are all choking into our coffees imagining what was coming next – apparently Kewpie was lacking some vital details, so she got a pin and went to work!!
Her mother was “Not Amused” when she made the discovery!! Ruby was chuckling so hard reminiscing at this point. She said “I thought I’d forgotten all the naughty things I did as a girl!!”
I suppose its no surprise that she made a career in nursing!!
We chatted a bit about inoculations (immunisation/vaccinations) as back in Ruby’s early days it was common to be nursing people with polio, TB & diphtheria. Vaccines for diphtheria became available in the early 30’s – Ruby started nursing in 1938.
Diphtheria for most of us is only something we read about in history books. To me it is the name of an illness that we don’t worry about anymore. Ruby see’s it very differently. First there’s the cough, then the sore throat, then the choking. She said it was an extremely cruel disease and the relief was great when they were able to inoculate the children.
A while back she told me to go look for my ancestors in the old graveyard and see the 4 children buried in the family plot. The old graves are in poor condition but I did find a very sombre piece in the local paper dated October 1870 –
There were whole wards set aside for TB and Polio in Ruby’s early nursing days.
The kids with polio pretty much lived at the hospital… often from areas far away so were without family during their stay. The nurses, staff and other patients became surrogate families.
Polio often attacked the arms and legs but Ruby said getting it in the chest wasn’t unheard of – and sadly very poor prognosis.
Bathing time was extremely busy – bandaging and rebandaging. Lots of kids, usually under the age of 14 years to attend to.
Ruby told us of a gentleman named Mr Record used to organise a team of between 4 and 6 volunteers daily to help at this time of day. They were young people aged between about 16 and 20 and were invaluable to the nurses. Ruby said she never knew how they would have coped without them. The young patients loved the interaction with the young helpers and apparently a good time was had by all – well as good as you can have with polio!
Ruby doesn’t remember anything else about Mr Record, but now, here in this little blog, just a few more people have heard what a kind man with his team of volunteers did to make a real difference in peoples lives.
Thank-fully cases of polio are rare to the point of non existent here in Australia.
As we stepped out the back to say goodbye to Ruby we were greeted by this magnificent double rainbow over her yard!
What a treat! The colours were so strong that even Ruby could see and enjoy it!
I hope you have enjoyed a ramble down memory lane with Ruby!
I will add her Apple Crumble recipe tomorrow
Cheers!
I love your stories with Ruby. It’s like a glimpse into the past. I especially enjoy hearing about her nursing history. I work in the medical field and it is really interesting hearing how things were back then. What a fabulous treat she is!
Thank-you for the feedback! It is quite amazing to hear the stories and how different things were done 80 odd years back! My husband is also a nurse and loves chatting to Ruby & vice versa… they have good old ‘nurse natters’ 🙂
We might have a lot of updated modern equipment and procedures and gadgets now, but in another way, things were a lot less complicated back then!
Thank you for sharing Ruby with us! What a blessing you are to each other! When I was a little girl (in the 1970s) and Mama was busy with the babies, I’d visit Granny Robinson a couple of farms over. She was in her 80s then and still chopped her own firewood for heat and cooked on an old wood fired stove. It was shiny and gorgeous! Even this nine year old was impressed with the old stove. Her lamps in the house were old gas lights that were changed over to electric. We always went to her house for Halloween, all decked out in our costumes. She made Carmel apples for us or she’d reach up in her China hutch and give us each a dime from the change she kept in a teacup.
How wonderful to have such vivid memories of Granny Robinson! She sounded amazing! I could really ‘see’ her place in my head from your description! It would have been an adventure for a young kid.
Fancy still chopping firewood at that age!! Its enough effort just stacking and moving it while I am in my 40’s!! lol (Plus I honestly think with my track record for chopping bits of myself with ordinary knives, leaving the axe alone is a smart idea!!)
My best friend lives on a farm and cooks with a wood stove!! Its fabulous!
Thank-you for sharing this story! I loved it!!
Ahhh her garden is always so refreshing to look at. And that weather vane… making notes. 😉
I know!! I want one of those weather vanes!!!
Well maybe someday we’ll have them! ;P
Loved Ruby’s stories…what a great read!
Thank-you!! I enjoy gathering them over a cuppa!