Chapter XX
On the first day of September 1943, Olive and Julia said their farewells to Leslie and Claire at the crowded, as always, King's Cross station and left for whereabouts of Rouen, France. A day before their leaving, they both got their new khaki uniforms, with white collars and brown gloves which made them look very formal and important. When Julia put on her uniform with a small hat on, she beamed with pride by the thought of what she was just about to do for her country and, most importantly, for the peace in the world.
Their journey from London to Rouen took one long day because of the constant use of the Canal la Manche, but both girls didn't mind at all as the weather was very warm, almost too hot for a normal September day and besides, one calm day did both of them good.
"Are you scared, Olive?" Julia asked when they finally got on the ferry which was supposed to take them to the port in Calais.
"No, not now at least." Olive responded "I think I'm more scared of what we're going to see when it comes to how the soldiers there will look like, rather than scared of bombing or anything like that." she shook her head slowly.
Julia nodded "Yes, I think I feel the same way." she said "But at the same time I'm really happy that I'm going to Rouen and I will be able to help more soldiers." she smiled at the white cliffs in Dover which were still seen on the horizon in front of them. It almost seemed as if the air around them was bringing the sweet song with it, and that the peacefulness of that place could never be changed, not even by war.
Olive smiled at Julia and put her hand in hers "There'll be bluebirds over…" she started singing one of her favourite songs in her pretty voice.
Julia joined in with a smile on her face "…the white cliffs of Dover! Tomorrow, just you wait and see!" and they both sang it in confident and hopeful voices until the cliffs in Dover vanished from their sights completely.
When Julia and Olive started their drive in the van with the other nurses towards their camp in Rouen, it was already after midnight and the stars were spread over the pitch-black sky. Everybody was asleep except for Julia whose eyes wouldn't close at all.
She was closely observing the stars on the sky and the road forming in front of her. She was thinking about her brothers and her cousin being on the same land as she was on in this very moment, and about Owen who was near finishing his training for a navy officer and soon to be sent in the centre of the Battle of the Atlantic.
"It's very weird," she thought and later would write down in her diary, "-that even though there's so much pain, heartbreak, death and sorrow spread all over the world, the stars are still shining above us, and their gleam is as radiating as ever.".
She also thought about Blythe and Gilly, her own bosom friends and cousins, flying somewhere between the clouds… But her thinking stopped there. She suddenly noticed the rays of lightnings appearing and disappearing on the sky, just above the woods. Then followed the sound of distant guns and Julia could almost swear, shoutings.
She gasped and jumped on her seat, making Olive, whose head was resting on her shoulder, to wake up and look at her questioningly "What happened?" she whisperd sleepily.
"I'm sorry, I didn't want to wake you up." Julia apologised quickly and tried to smile at her friend but her fearful eyes betrayed her.
"Don't apologise, Bath." she whispered back and sat up straight "What happened…?" she started but before Julia could answer the sounds of guns filled up the air around them again and Olive understood immediately. They both looked at each other and without a word, they put their hands together in a tight grasp, and looked at the lights in front of them, feeling nothing else but fear.
Dearest Mother, Father and Cee,
I just finished my second day at work in Rouen and now I'm going to describe it all to you, just like I promised.
Our camp is not actually in Rouen, it's in its zone but not actually in the city, like most of us thought it would be. I would describe its location as being in the fields, somewhere between first forest and the second forest. It's quite near to the front, but please don't worry, like Leslie said to me just before I left her: "You're not going to the front with a gun on your back, Jules."
Our camp consists only of tents, triangle and square shaped. Our own tent (where all the nurses sleep) is square-shaped and is quite big. There are around twenty beds in here, two of them are mine and Olive's. I must say that I don't actually mind our living conditions except for the bugs (sorry dear Uncle Carl!), because it's just too many of them.
Our new Matron, Mrs Tate, is a much nicer person than Mrs Ashby, although she still has some sparks of grumpiness in her eyes and she is quite strict.
Although there are lots of nurses my age here, I don't really feel a connection to any of them except for the one girl who reminds me greatly of Cilia. The shy yet very nice girl is called Amelia Dallas (who is Australian) and she sleeps in a bed next to mine. Amelia, Olive and I talk together at the end of each day, listening to my portable radio, and avoiding all of the war news.
But coming back to my first day at work; well, it was very tiring for sure. And, although I don't want to say it, I must; it was very emotional. My hours of work are the same like they were in London and so now I'm working on a day-duty (6am till 6pm). I'm working in the "newly arrived" ward and therefore the sights I see everyday are truly the worst of all. If Leslie thinks that the men whom we nursed in London looked bad, then I don't know what she would say about those here. The poor poor men!
I don't want to describe in lots of details what I saw yesterday and today, but I will make it quite simple and straight forward: men's faces covered in blood and horrible burns, men's feet and arms almost ripped to its bones and every possible part of their body covered in scars and bruises in all of the possible colours you can imagine. I think I don't have to tell you that I was very shocked at first and that my brain stopped working for around five minutes after starting my work yesterday. But I got back to myself quickly and started working at full capacity.
I don't know how many soldiers I nursed today. I tried counting them but when I got to sixteen, I completely lost it. I think that I did quite well especially because Mrs Tate came up to me after my working hours and shaked my hand, saying: "I've never seen a nurse who works with such passion like you did today." she said to me and in that moment, I really felt proud of myself.
I must go now, Mrs Tate informed us that we have to turn our lights off in five minutes because it's almost ten o'clock.
I'm sending you the picture Leslie took of me and Olive in our new uniforms. Don't we look very mature (believe me we're not really)?
Your loving daughter and a sister,
Nurse Julia Una Blythe
And so September passed, being the month fulfilled with work not only for Julia but also for all the other nurses in their camp as well. Amelia Dallas became Julia's another kindred spirit, and so her 'little triangle' with her, Amelia and Olive was filled up again.
Gilly was moved up to the position of a Flight Officer and was somewhere in Italy, wheras his brother Blythe was somewhere in Sicily. Owen already made his way to the front and was fighting as one of the navy officers in the Battle of the Atlantic, so bravely it was almost impossible to think that Owen was still a shy and a modest boy he always had been.
Julia thought that Walt, Merry and Jake were safe in the trenches, until she received a short telegram from Merry, on one warm afternoon in the first week of October which said: "Walt is wounded in the leg. They're sending him to England for treatment.". Julia's heart went still and her face turned pale. Olive just came back to their 'tent-home', as she called it, chattering with Amelia by her side as she saw Julia staring absently at the peace of paper in her hands.
"Bath? Are you alright?" Olive sat down by her side and put a hand on her shoulder with worry in her eyes.
"Walt has been wounded." she whispered back still looking at the telegram in her hands "And he is sent for recovery to England." her voice cracked in the middle and Olive quickly embraced her.
Amelia sat by their side and put her small white hand on Julia's back "It means that he will be alright, Julia." she said softly.
"Exactly." Olive added "Why are you so worried if you know he will recover?" she asked her and made Julia to look at her.
"Because the telegram said that he has been wounded in his leg." she replied slowly "And you know exactly that this, plus that he is being sent to England, probably means an operation or…or… an amputatation." she said the last word gravely. Olive sighed sadly and hugged Julia once again, allowing her to cry on her shoulder.
Unfortunately for Walt, it meant the amputation of his leg. He wrote a letter to his sister from the hospital in Basingstoke in which he explained that he had been shot twice in the leg straight into its nerve and the operation wouldn't do him any better. Thankfully though, by a pure accident, he was transferred into the hopsital where his Lily worked and so he wasn't alone through it all. "It's because of her I don't feel any sadness or regret now." he wrote to Julia in the middle of October "I lost my left leg but she still loves me and that's what matters the most to me."
"And he's coming home in late November!" Julia exclaimed while reading out his letter to Olive and Amelia sitting next to her.
"Oh, that's wonderful!" Amelia grinned with her shining blue eyes.
"I told you that he would be fine!" Olive said and winked to Julia who smiled at her.
"But he also writes that he will marry Lily before they will come back to P.E.I.!" Julia gasped and put a hand on her mouth in surprise. Olive's eyes went wide and Amelia giggled lightly at their reaction.
"Why won't they wait till coming back to Canada?" Olive asked after the moment of silence.
"He says that," Julia started slowly "-Lily doesn't want a big family wedding and "besides we are already in Europe for our honeymoon"." Julia humphed and laughed "I would never suspect my brother Walter for anything of that kind!".
"Now, I am most certainly sure that your family is nothing else but the best material for a book." Olive said in a decided tone, and laughter filled up the room again.
Dearest sister,
Lily and I are happily married now and believe me it has been the loveliest 24 hours of my life so far. Don't worry, I sent a telegram to our parents and Lily sent one to hers. Mother wrote that she is very happy for us but wishes that we got married at home, however Dad completely understands why we did it that way and is very very happy.
Now, we are on our way to the lovely London which I still have to discover for myself. I am determined to meet up with our Leslie one day. We will stay there for two weeks and then we will go back to Glen, just a month before the Christmas Day.
Sheba, I don't even think about my missing leg, you know. It was bothering me just after the amputation but now I'm completely alright with the idea, except that I really want to dance with my new wife, and that is not recomended at all, in my state.
Anyway, the next stop is King's Cross and so I think that I'll leave it there.
Be careful out there in Rouen, and remember that I'm still and always will be, no one else but your loving brother.
Walter Blythe