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Post by annemcnamara on Feb 8, 2010 0:14:20 GMT
test
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Post by rose5mcdonaghtce on Feb 8, 2010 0:23:48 GMT
Hi Anne,
Missed you last Saturday night, never mind testing, start typing and make sure you go to Kennedys and get a new pair of Gypsy Gold tights for the next mess meeting.
Welcome to the Forum
Rose.
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Post by annemcnamara on Feb 8, 2010 0:27:37 GMT
My first post so bear with me. I remember going down to visit my mother in the Families,and the nurse came out and told me I had a new baby brother (matt). When i went in to see him there was 2 babies in there, I went over to the clean baby but the nurse told me my brother was in the other cot waiting to be washed, not a pretty sight for a 13 year old. After he was washed I held him and I was the first in the family to see him. Lovely memory.
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Post by Olive McNamara (Tierney) on Feb 8, 2010 1:00:19 GMT
Hi Anne and all, Welcome to the forum Anne I heard that story you have told many a time about you going to see Matt when he was born. How come i was not allowed in? I had to look in the window, myself and Patrica Barnby. And i remember well spotting a packet of U S A biscuits on mammy locker. Dont know if i was more excited seeing my new baby brother (Matt) our the packet of U S A They were happy memories OK Cheers for now Olive
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Post by Olive McNamara (Tierney) on Feb 8, 2010 1:12:17 GMT
Hi Andy, God you really know your Nurses Status I thought the were all just nurses. Do you Andy our anyone know of a Matron that was in hospital called " Bag a Rags" ? Cheers Olive
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Post by andybrennan on Feb 8, 2010 1:15:13 GMT
Olive
The Bag of Rags was not a nurse she was an Institution Joey or Rose will give you her full status
Andy
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Post by rose5mcdonaghtce on Feb 8, 2010 1:52:23 GMT
Hi Olive,
Bag of Rags was Miss Graham, the Matron, she wore a blue uniform and of course the white veil, her bodyshape would have been a major challenge for Mr. Gook, the poor woman is most likely dead and God knows she never did me any harm, but from the neck down to her knees the dress of her uniform looked like it had been stuffed randomly with rags, maybe she had a bad fitting corset, but come to think of it, it would really have had to been a really bad fit. Miss Graham was well endowed on top. Her main base was the big hospital, but she did her rounds in the families around five thirty in the evenings, she would say the Rosary in the Maternity and General Wards, if you had only come out of surgery, she would expect you to answer the prayers through the haze of ether, I know it happened to me. The nurses in the families would be inclined to stay out of the bunk and busy themselves around the wards while waiting on her to arrive, even the Docs gave her a wide berth.
She used to get the patients to roll bandages for the Red Cross, she had a smile form ear to ear but there always seemed to be a challenge in the smile and it did'nt quite reach her eyes. When she walked up the corridors of the big hospital, she used to sway from side with each step, she wore no make up just a liberal amount of ruby red lipstick, she wore her hair in a bun under the veil, and nodded her head in a very patronising way while speaking to you. Every inch of both hospitals was inspected by her on a daily basis, the finger test for dust, she did'nt like patients lying on top of a made up bed, she said it made the place look untidy. She was devoted to the chapel in the hospital and if you were down visiting and she was on the corridor she would put her finger to her lips at you as you passed by the doors reverance girls, reverance. There were signs on the walls of the big hospital saying NO LOITERING used to think as a kid she had painted them herself. She kept the wardsmaids busy with the lead swingers on the floors.
Olive am sure Mr. Kelly will have loads more to say and remember a lot more about her.
Dad made bits of his leg when we were kids and was in Dock for weeks on end, there was a married soldier from Kildare who had fallen from a roof on the same ward, back in the Curragh after they had patched him up in Bricins, he had broken his back had dreadful injuries, every night when his wife and children came in she was there, can remember Dad saying how good she was at arranging help for when he went home, and had personally nursed him when he first returned from Dublin. Like a lot of nurses both Civy and Army of the day, bedside manner was'nt always what it should be, but very compassionate and dedicated when the chips were down.
Rose.
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Post by rose5mcdonaghtce on Feb 8, 2010 2:01:05 GMT
PS Olive she used to organise Jumble Sales in the hosptial, they used to be really good, she would be up and down the Qtrs looking for stuff to sell, am sure she would have collared your Mam, I can remember tying bundles of magazines for it, Mag Cummins, Gertie Coyle and Mam were heavily involved in the preparations, whether they had volunteered or she roped them in I don't know. I always bought a pair of high heels for playing house at the hospital jumble sale, once when they were getting the stuff ready, there was a pair that had been white and someone tried to dye them black, asked Mam could I just have them, we'll ask Miss Graham, when Mam said shes mad after these shoes, Miss Graham said of course lets say 3d shall we, the state of them no one was going to pay for them, I got them for nothing in the end as they were left there.
Rose.
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Post by annemcnamara on Feb 8, 2010 19:51:53 GMT
Hi Rose and Olive Mam dreaded meeting Bag a Rags because there was always alterations in those bags. something needed to be taken up or let down, taken in or let out, buttons, zips or a patch and always a God Bless you when the job was done.
Anne
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Post by annemcnamara on Feb 8, 2010 20:12:45 GMT
HI ROSE,
I remember going in to Kennedys for stockings [nylons] with my brown pay packet from Kingswear and she produced a box of loose stockings all sizes a bit like the broken bisciuts ha ha, well she tried to match up a large one and a small one.... now I know my legs are short but they are definately of equal length.... told her the colour was wrong and left her with them.
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Post by rose5mcdonaghtce on Feb 8, 2010 22:40:38 GMT
Hi Anne,
The nylons were a right pain, you could have a drawer full and not a pair among them, remember the box of odds and ends too, everything was in a box in Kennedys, under the counter was like Alladin's cave. Only your Mam could do an alteration for Bag O Rags, what shape were the dresses when she took them off I wonder, when she wore her uniform overcoat, the green one, from behind it was like two bulls fighting under a blanket every step she took. Terrible things to be saying about the poor woman, I'll never see the face of God. If memory serves me right she drove a grey Morris Minor. She wore a grey camel hair coat, big belt tied around her waist, doing nothing for the figure, and a navy blue beret style hat to Mass.
Rose.
Miss Gromell, had the weirdest hairstyle she wore a kind of a bun with two or three rows of plaits around it, don't know how she managed it but she always got the veil to sit on the back of the mound of hair.
Rose.
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Post by rose5mcdonaghtce on Feb 8, 2010 22:49:43 GMT
Does anyone remember this, Mam told us, when she was expecting Monica in 19-- she spent most of the pregnancy on bed rest in the Families, there was a nurse in the Sick Sisters Bunk who had returned from working abroad with the missions in her role as a nurse, apparently she ingested a worm that embedded in the wall of her stomach, apparently this was a slow killer, she died while Mam was still in hospital, she told us her name but neither can remember it.
While on the subject of worms, they were a major issue for the mothers, too chatty, you had worms, a bit giddy, you had worms, if you looked for an extra bit of sugar, you had worms, do you all remember getting dosed for them.
Rose.
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Post by kathyo on Feb 9, 2010 8:44:22 GMT
hi rose god we were treated for every thing head -lice conception, even though we were not, eating fish to give you brains (don't know what went wrong) every sat-night my father polished all the shoes,while we were haveing the bath in front of the fire, sunday best laid out for mass, eggs and rashers in the press for after mass. happy days kathyo
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Post by rose5mcdonaghtce on Feb 9, 2010 22:42:55 GMT
Hi Kathyo,
In our house if you did'nt have worms you were constipated or your blood was low, so we were regularly dosed for worms, Syrup of Figs for the bowels, and Minadex for the blood. Mind you we rarely got an anti-biotic, we got red lemonade and aspros for a cold and if we had flu we got a hot whiskey to sweat it out of us, loved the hot whiskey, plenty of sugar.
Rose.
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Post by annemcnamara on Feb 9, 2010 22:58:55 GMT
Hi Rose, Carmel and Maura,
My mam made my Communion dress, headress, veil and bag I thought I was the bees knees. The two of us were walking up to the Church and just at the houses in Mc Dermott I tripped and grazed my knee, I tell you I got a swipe also but there was no dish cloth in her hand ha ha
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