Chapter 7
Epilogue
Leaving my wheelbarrow behind me with much regret – and it was heavy wooden barrows similar to that shown at the end of chapter 6 that I had used countless times to muck out shippons, stalls, stables and sties, I returned to Ramilies Road, Liverpool with a heavy heart, but full of determination to make the best of it. I had to get my parents back on their feet, and see to the needs of young brother John. Then I had to look to myself, I needed to work on my life after being a Land Girl.
Adjusting to Liverpool
But first, I had to adjust to the radical change in my life style and the stark contrast of being at Marshaw in a job I enjoyed, in country surroundings that suited me and to people around me I liked and admired. And there I had been spared to a certain extent, many of the everyday travails of the war. Now, I was returned to coping with life in drab and war damaged Liverpool that was so readily apparent with the desolation of large areas piled high with rubble of demolished buildings, the gaps in the streets where shops, offices and buildings and houses had once stood with damaged and unrepaired buildings adjacent and all about. At war’s end Britain was in a sorry state, the people were tired, weary and undernourished, food rationing continued, there were shortages of coal, electricity and gas and many other items were in short supply. Life for all was very hard. We had to get on with things as best we could.
My New Job Assisting Mr. Gee, Dentist to Professionals
What I needed was a job and nearly seven years as a land girl had not readily fitted me for one in the city, nor had leaving school so early. But I looked for one, and found one. How I found that first job, I cannot recall. It was with a dental surgeon, a Mr Gee of Castle Street as his nurse. I knew nothing of dentistry other than suffering at the hands of clinic dentists as a child, but he was prepared to train me, because as he said I would do things the way he wanted, and not how some trained nurse would want him to do them.
I found my work with him very satisfying. His practice was located on Castle Street at the center of city’s business world, and his clients principally reflected this location, professional men and their wives and children. But Mr. Gee also had contracts with several of the shipping lines that sailed in and out of Liverpool, and he attended to the wants of officers and crews from distant lands like South America with men from the Booth Lines, India and the East with the Bibby Line, nearer, Russians and Norwegians from the whaling ships that came to Liverpool for repair and re-fitting. Through his clients, I got to know members of the Norwegian Consulate. He also attended to the girls who worked in our building. To the wealthy and the companies he charged a full fee, to the girls a nominal sum. Mr. Gee made me responsible for all the billing and payment processing. I enjoyed this payment work, but my favorite aspect of working for Mr. Gee was meeting and attending the needs of the individual patients.
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