Detour Ahead (with fond memories of Essie Summers)

"Don't forget to tell your mother I won't be in tonight - I'm on late shift."

James gathered up the parcels his dad had carefully packed, grabbed his bike and headed to the hospital. It was January 1945. He had left school a year earlier, and was assisting the war effort by working around the district on farms where and when required. Now with his mother in hospital he was required to assist at home. Arriving at the hospital he parked his bicycle and headed inside. He never went in the main entrance. The little door at the side entrance was a lot shorter and therefore quicker.

Today he was in more of a hurry than usual. The local football team for which he played, was running a social dance and he was pretty keen to attend. It was important to get back home, finish the other tasks, be ready to meet the team and catch the bus out to the country where the dance was to be held. He took the service lift up to the second floor, got out and sped down the long corridor. Two signs halfway down appeared. One said Detour; the other said Wet floors. There was also a lot of equipment scattered about. Ignoring all the signs and increasing his pace he slipped, fell awkwardly and went crashing into a sturdy network of trestles and ladders, some of which he managed to dislodge, falling across his spreadeagled legs.

Two tradesmen came to help him up. A sharp pain indicated something was broken. He was in the right place. One of them walked down the corridor to a phone. A few minutes later the medics appeared. A quick jab and he was pain free and on his way to the A and E centre. From there to the hospital ward. The bone had to be reset once the swelling was down The packages accompanied him. A nurse called Elizabeth Bennett came to look after him. She offered to have the packages delivered to his Mum and to inform his Dad of his current predicament. Over the next couple of days he saw quite a lot of Nurse Bennett and at one time he heard the Ward Sister chiding her, "Nurse Bennett there are other patients in need of your attention!!!"

The courtship was not whirlwind but two months later, after the Nurses' Ball and a number of outings, they became an item. Chance intervened when James entered the side door and took that particular route. Ignoring the detour sign, though calamitous, had been opportune for him. Yes! Two years later he and Elizabeth married. The course was straight. It was full steam ahead but it was not without some deviations.



Grant Ward