Three Decades

The Class of September 1983 with our beloved tutor Leslie Brint
Exactly 30 years ago, I was a gauche, slightly immature twenty one year old Welshman. Who had just left a ' secure' yet mind numbingly boring career at the Nat West Bank for pastures new.
 I was also one of just seven brand new student nurses who entered their Mental Health Nurse Training at The Countess of Chester Hospital in Chester. We were nervous  little souls all told, and were an eclectic bunch that found themselves entering a vocation just as the demise of the old asylum system had been implemented .
It was all a long time ago
My nursing career has meandered from my training in Chester to staffing on a "Mother & Baby" Unit  at Bootham Park Hospital in York ( mums with Post puerperal depression and psychosis). From there I leapfrogged into general nursing in Sheffield, where I ended up at the flagship Spinal Injury Unit for over fifteen happy years.
Since our move to Wales, I have worked part time on Intensive Care
30 years all told........It's a sobering thought

And what has a career in nursing taught me?
Well
It's taught me the ability to read people, I think.
It's taught me a certain degree of sympathy and warmth for people
And it has homed a slightly irreverent sense of humour
But, I know that after three decades, I can now appreciate the fact that  its not that long before I can retire
 ......it's almost time to go, me thinks.

Hey ho
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Changing the subject... I thought you may appreciate a Winifred update.
Well Chris survived a day alone with her yesterday when I was at work and this morning, he gave her a quick early walk before he went to work, which was sweet of him.
The old bear continues to settle in quite nicely.


48 comments:

  1. Awww, the 'old bear' looks delightful, I'll have to go back and have a catch up, you've been busy while I've been away for the weekend :-)

    ReplyDelete
  2. 30 years and you're still cute! Some would say Winifred has a face only a mother could love... but I wouldn't agree.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Awwwwwwwww!!! I think nurses are fab - u - lous...

    ReplyDelete
  4. Those jowls! Winifred's obviously. You haven't changed a bit. x

    ReplyDelete
  5. I think the nursing World needs you a bit longer yet. Keeping in employment prevents you from taking on even more animals! I love the close up of Winnies mush! (Wasn't sure I got the spelling correct for mush, which is 'dated slang' for face!)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. It's got me another four years simone x

      Delete
  6. Was the girl with the light blue top related to you? You look very similar. Almost like brother and sister. Are you sure it was a bunch of trainee nurses with their tutor and not Hughie Green with his dance troupe?...Love the photo of Winifred..."We will fight them on the beaches..."

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Lol.. He does look,like Hughie Green
      The girl in the striped top is a scouser by the name of Paula
      And a right live wire she was too

      Funny but out of the seven of us students ( there was one more gal in the group was not in the photo) 6 are still nurses

      Delete
  7. Go ahead and retire...while you're still young enough and healthy enough to enjoy it. There's nothing like it! So glad Winifred and Chris get along so well. I think she is adorable and oh those eyes!

    ReplyDelete
  8. thirty years of great work. i love retirement! winnie is too cute. more pics please?

    ReplyDelete
  9. Are you the one on the left in the pic? And how awesome it must be to be close to retirement! I'm a tad jealous.

    ReplyDelete
  10. To have given so much to so many people must surely put one hell of a halo around the top of your head, and even when your halo goes askew as it must surely do during hiccoughs of the day then it will not take long to get it straight again, your humour and attitude towards life says that this is so. Not 'time to go', surely it must be 'time to change track'! Vx

    ReplyDelete
  11. Does it seem possible that 30 years have gone by? Think carefully before you decide to retire. Whatever would you do with all that extra time? lol. More like how would Chris handle the extra chaos once you've been set free?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Lol
      Alison
      Remember I only work one shift a week as it is!
      Lol

      Delete
  12. I want to kiss those cheeks...Winnie's not yours. Yours would be tweaked.
    Jane x

    ReplyDelete
  13. Well for you nursing was a true vocation, eh? I wish I could have settled down to a steady career. By 1983 I already had a bomb disposal tour of Northern Ireland behind me which resulted in a long and painful stay in the burns unit of the Military Wing of Musgrave Park Hospital, raising my respect for nurses to Godlike status.

    ReplyDelete
  14. Retire while you're still enjoying it rather than getting to the point where you hate the thought of going to work each day.

    ReplyDelete
  15. Anonymous12:31 pm

    I feel like I am stupid. Everyone seems to know which is you in the the photo, but I don't. On the far left is my best guess.

    You may well use her full name, but I shall think of her as Winnie.

    ReplyDelete
  16. And the Nat West has gone downhill ever since!

    ReplyDelete
  17. Winnie such a sweet face.
    You look very sweet and unjaded in that photo as well John, before you started reading people so well . lol

    ReplyDelete
  18. Well, we know you won't be bored when you retire.

    ReplyDelete
  19. Winifred is the spit of Ena Sharples.
    My cloth-eared best mate once told me her GP had diagnosed her with Purple Depression. We debated the apparent grading system for depression. Black? - really bad. Purple? - not quite so bad then - before it dawned on me what the doc had *actually* said....

    ReplyDelete
  20. Hard to think of you retiring, you're still a kid. I take it that Winnie is housebroken if taken for a walk, she gets dearer every day.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. It won't be for 4 years yet
      It's awhile. Yet

      Delete
  21. Maybe Winnie shall be Chris's favorite.

    Retire, expand your menagerie and revel in your home life.

    ReplyDelete
  22. If you can do it, retire. End of advice, except enjoy your lovely pottering, and improve your Ukrainian village.

    ReplyDelete
  23. Look at that 'glint' in your eye John! You were full of it even back then!! So this is where you honed your empathetic nature.
    Winifred has that resigned look of...'I think I'll stick around for a bit'.

    ReplyDelete
  24. Anonymous3:32 pm

    Retire early if you can John....
    Winnie looks so sweet.

    ReplyDelete
  25. I bet you are a wonderful nurse x

    ReplyDelete
  26. As you have so many animals, tha garden, your partner and interesting village life, you will cope well with it. And there is always still time to become a new "Miss Read".

    ReplyDelete
  27. you are HAWT! and I love the new puppy!

    ReplyDelete
  28. Winnie has the most adorable face!
    I hope you live a long and healthy life John, so you enjoy your retirement without any aches and pains!

    ReplyDelete
  29. Well done John !
    Love the new photo of Winnie. But of course I have found George in two of them. My Scotty radar is always working.

    cheers, parsnip

    ReplyDelete
  30. Think you might miss it a little bit? x Love those Winifred eyes full of love.

    ReplyDelete
  31. Those eyes John (Winnie's not yours) could coax anything out of anyone if they so desired. Come to think of it - you look pretty good yourself in that photo.

    ReplyDelete
  32. You're not ready to retire. I know it. The world of nursing has need of you. Winnie is too cute.

    Love,
    Janie

    ReplyDelete
  33. John, the years have taught you well. Lovely piccy of Winnie.

    ReplyDelete
  34. You and Winifred are both adorable in those photos!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I look a little stiff....
      She looks a little too goggle eyed

      Delete
  35. Anonymous10:36 pm

    You all look happy...like you get along. What a concept.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. All but one of us got one....
      We were a nice tight knitted group

      Delete
  36. Two great photos ... you are a youngster there, aren't you ...

    Is Winnie on your KNEE? She's made herself right at home, hasn't she? Good stuff.

    ReplyDelete
  37. Damn, 30 years and I didn't have you as a nurse.

    Just think, we could have swapped stories!!!

    Nothing like a happy dog :-)

    ReplyDelete
  38. Hoho. Chris weakens. ;-)
    Have a good day, John!

    ReplyDelete
  39. Winifred is just lovely! I'm so glad you have a new bully. xoxoxo

    ReplyDelete

I love all comments Except abusive ones from arseholes