Nurse, Come You Here!: More True Stories of a Country Nurse on a Scottish Isle

258 Pages·2015·1.31 MB·English

by  Mary J. Macleod

Also by Mary J. MacLeod
Call the Nurse

Copyright © 2014 by Mary J. MacLeod All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any
manner without the express written consent of the publisher, except in the case of brief excerpts in critical
reviews or articles. All inquiries should be addressed to Arcade Publishing, 307 West 36th Street, 11th Floor,
New York, NY 10018.
First North American Edition 2015
First published in the UK by Luath Press Limited under the title More Tales from the Island Nurse Arcade
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10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available on file.
Cover design by Owen Corrigan
Cover photo: iStock/Thinkstock
Print ISBN: 978-1-62872-536-0
Ebook ISBN: 978-1-62872543-8
Printed in the United States of America
This book is dedicated to Elizabeth—a dear friend.
I thank all those members of my family and my friends who have encouraged me. I
thank ‘Andy,’ my ‘techno wizard,’ and the people in the book for just being
themselves.
CONTENTS
PROLOGUE

ONE Down in a Ditch
TWO Grey Shadows
THREE Clannan Beg
FOUR A Cow in the Kitchen
FIVE A Quiet Bay?
SIX Josh
SEVEN Tears and Twisters
EIGHT A Light in the Night
NINE The Calm and the Storm
TEN A Damp Delivery
ELEVEN Guilty or Not Guilty
TWELVE Riding Sunshine
THIRTEEN Father Peter’s Quest
FOURTEEN Bowler Hats
FIFTEEN The Tangled Web
SIXTEEN Eggs, Eggs, and More Eggs
SEVENTEEN A Four-Legged Sailor
EIGHTEEN The Lure of Papavray
NINETEEN Island Animals
TWENTY Parents and Problems
TWENTY-ONE Sunshine’s Adventure
TWENTY-TWO The Echo in the Hills
TWENTY-THREE The School Outing
TWENTY-FOUR Miss Amelia Arabella Anstey-Smythe
TWENTY-FIVE The Man Who Washed
TWENTY-SIX Johnny’s Village
TWENTY-SEVEN Elizabeth, Ina, and a Lot of Snow
TWENTY-EIGHT Little Boy Lost
TWENTY-NINE From the Deep to the Sky
THIRTY 007 in a Morris Minor
THIRTY-ONE Home!
THIRTY-TWO California Sunshine!
THIRTY-THREE Nevada
THIRTY-FOUR Storms and Speed
THIRTY-FIVE A Grasshopper and a Black Widow
THIRTY-SIX Back to California
THIRTY-SEVEN The End of an Era
EPILOGUE
GLOSSARY
PROLOGUE
Again and again my thoughts return to that happy time spent among the beauty
and peace of the islands of the Hebrides.
I remember the warm, unquestioning welcome of the people, the stoicism with
which they met the hardships of lives lived in that remote place and the laughter
and banter of the ceilidhs in crowded croft house kitchens on cold winter
evenings.
I recall the island’s unsophisticated children who delighted in the simple
things of life: the sheepdog trials, the arrival and departure of the little island
plane, the comings and goings at the steamer pier, and a school outing to a castle
on an adjacent isle.
I knew old folk who had tales to tell of an earlier era—of a time before radio,
electricity, planes, and cars. Tales of war and the cruelty of the sea, of family and
loyalty and stories with no beginning and no ending.
Papavray—I need to revisit you in my memories, write once more of the
splendour of your mountains and seas and enter again into the lives of your
gentle people. I want to revel in the remembered smell of peat smoke curling into
the frosty air from tiny white chimneys, to feel the soft rain on my face or to
hurry through a storm, head down to the cosy shelter of our home among the
hills and glens of that beloved isle.
I shall remember and dream again as I look back over the years.