大象传媒

This story is by S. McCann, and has been added to the site with their permission. The author fully understands the site's terms and conditions. The story was collected by Joyce Gibson, transcribed by Elizabeth Lamont and added to the site by Bruce Logan.
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In late 1944 I started having attacks of severe stomach pains and vomiting about once a month. The doctor sent me to a specialist who decided, after I had a series of x-rays, that I had a 鈥済rumbling鈥� appendix, which should be removed.

Mother wanted me to have the operation in a local nursing home, but the doctor advised against this as he thought I could be put into a room with an elderly person, not another child. It was arranged that I would go into the Northern Hospital. This hospital had been moved from the docks area of Liverpool for safety reasons to a teacher training college not far from where we lived. The college staff had been evacuated to Keswick. The day arrived for me to go into hospital for my operation. I was eleven at the time but, instead of being admitted to a children鈥檚 ward, I was put into the female surgical ward. This was in the assembly hall of the erstwhile college. There were beds down each wall and two rows head to head down the middle and more beds on the platform: in all at least seventy. My mother never forgot this and was very upset about leaving me there. I was the youngest person in the ward.

I had my operation about the 10th August 1945 and my main memory of my stay was the news of Victory over Japan coming through, and the sight of our ward maid, a large and cheerful woman, dancing up and down this huge ward clutching her brush, and singing at the top of her voice in celebration.

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