Book description
'What is your name?' she asks, staring at me.
'Jennifer Ross.'
'Jennifer Ross, Sister. Well, Nurse Ross, you are dressed
in the uniform of a nurse from the Leeds General Infirmary. Such a
uniform is not worn with a cardigan. Take it off at once.'
'Yes Sister.' I can feel my face turn red.
A trainee nurse in the 1950s had a lot to bear. In Jennifer Craig's
enchanting memoir, we meet these warm-hearted yet naïve young girls
as they get to grips with strict discipline, long hours and bodily
fluids. But we also see the camaraderie that develops in evening study
sessions, sneaked trips to the cinema and mischievous escapades with
the young trainee doctors.
The harsh conditions prove too much for some girls, but the
opportunity to help her patients in their time of need is too much of
a pull for Jenny. As she commits to her vocation and knuckles down to
her exams, she is determined that when she reaches the heights of Ward
Sister herself she will not become the frightening matron that struck
fear into her student heart ...
Rich in period detail, and told with a good dose of Yorkshire
humour, Yes Sister, No Sister is a life-affirming true story of
a life long past.
Jennifer Craig trained at Leeds General Infirmary and rose to become
Ward Sister. She emigrated to Canada in 1961, where she married and had
two children. Later she studied for a Bachelor's degree in nursing,
followed by a Masters degree in education and finally a Ph. D. Ten years
as an educational consultant in a medical school preceded
semi-retirement when she became a student of homeopathy and obtained her
diploma. She now lives in the mountains of British Columbia with a dog
and a cat and is a student of writing.
