Anecdotes & Stories
1918 Flu Epidemic
“During the 1918 epidemic two pupil midwives caught the infection – one from a patient admitted by the police, who died shortly after admission. The Pupil was admitted to hospital, also died. The only staff nurse went home ill, the other pupil midwife did the same, leaving the Matron single handed for four days. She was on call, having 4 or 5 patients resident in the home.”
– St. Monica’s Minutes, undated.
For more information regarding the Spanish Flu in South Africa click here.
A Foundling
“On a cold cloudy morning , a parcel as found outside the windows of the Home just under the railings. Wrapped in a small piece of curtain and an Argus newspaper was a newly born baby girl weighing about 6 lbs. Cold and almost dead, she was taken into the Home and nursed back to life. Later she was adopted, and is now a happy child, growing up where she is cared for in a good home”
– St. Monica’s Minutes, June 1920
A Visit from Royalty
“Her Royal Highness Princess Alice, honoured S. Monica’s Home with a visit on July 25th. Her Royal Highness was welcomed by the Chairman (Ven. Archdeacon Lavis), Dr. A. Simpson Wells, the Rev. Canon Herford, Mrs. Lavis, Mrs. Lefson, Mrs. Garabedien, Mrs. Lightfoot, the Matron and Sister Thomas. A genuine interest was shown in the work of the home, the mothers and infants, and the nurses. Her Royal Highness especially remarked on so much being done in the arrangement in the cramped conditions available and appeared glad to hear of the possibility of some enlargement in future.”
– St. Monica’s Annual Report 1925
Midwifery to Music
Although they worked with families living in extremely difficult circumstances, St. Monica’s staff were often impressed by the resilience of the individuals whom they encountered. Cramped conditions made life difficult but did not remove all its joys ; a fact to which the following story is testament.
“The two men who fetched the nurses having nowhere else to go than the sheltered room in which the case was in progress, sat on the floor and played their ukuleles until the case was finished and the nurses left for home”.
– St. Monica’s Annual Report 1933
A Staff Nurses report on an Emergency District Case
“In the early hours of the morning, we received an urgent call to attend a patient in the 2nd Quarry, Upper Signal Hill.
On arriving we founding appalling conditions of poverty […]. A tiny dilapidated zinc erection housed the patient, her husband and three small children. The patient was lying on a torn mattress on the bare ground. The rain was pouring in through the roof, and we moved her into a drier corner. With great difficulty we managed to heat some water in a tin on a wood fire outside the shack, sheltering it from the rain as best we could.
A messenger was sent back to St. Monica’s for clothing for both mother and babe. We tidied the shack. The sheltered fire burned brightly, the babe cried lustily, and the patient looked bright and happy; and as the necessary clothing etc. had arrived both were soon made as comfortable as possible, and we left them feeling happy and touched at the gratitude expressed by both patient and her husband.
The next day a friend supplied an old bedstead. The torn mattress was lifted onto it, so that the mother and babe were raised off the damp ground.”
– St. Monica’s Annual Report 1934
Another Emergency Call
“From the hillside came the message one summer morning soon after sunrise. A woman had given birth to a child out in the open; would we send a nurse? A Staff Nurse and a pupil set out, attracted to the spot by a little group of excited spectators, all anxious to lend assistance in whatever way they could. Water, newspapers, a blanket etc. were soon forthcoming. The poor mother lay on the bare ground, her little one beside her.
She had walked a long way, hoping to reach shelter before the babe was born, but she had started too late, and her only shelter was the deep ditch in which the nurses found her. With their bag and its contents laid out on the bank, they set to work and soon made her as comfortable as possible, under the circumstances.
The ambulance was called, and within a short time, both mother and babe found safe lodging at St. Monica’s”
– St. Monica’s Annual Report 1936
