Letter 063 - Party

Dear Jeremy,

It was my birthday on the 27th September. Our old friends Muriel and George Buckmaster and Elsie Laws from Kitwe, Pat and George Hiddleston from Ndola and Churchie, Miss Kathleen Churchill, came to dinner to wish me well and bring me gifts. It was a very happy celebration. It was nearing the end of our tour of duty and our time in Zambia.

Then it was your first birthday on the 7th October and you woke very early in the morning to begin the celebrations. You were walking very wobbly and when you forgot to concentrate you would sit down plop on your behind which was well nappy padded.

Friends and neighbours came to your party and we all met in the court yard of the house. Mrs Bailey's big Alsatian dog brought you a parcel in her mouth. Every time you went to take it she walked off with it again. In the end Phyllis had to take it from her and give it to you amidst much laughter all round. There was a cake with one candle and your sisters and brother helped you to blow that out. Party food always included jelly, sweets and fizzy drinks - not sure if you enjoyed the fizzy drinks but your visitors did.

There was another small boy present a few months younger than you. His Mother was a nurse who trained in Cape Town. She had had to go to Kitwe Hospital to have her baby as it was her first and she was very shocked by the treatment she received there. It was a new hospital and staffed by young nurses from England - the Sunshine Girls we called them. After care of the mothers had changed much and she was no longed kept resting in bed and remaining in hospital for 10 to 12 days. This friend, wish I could remember her name, was told that her baby was crying and she must get up and attend to him herself. This was not the way she had trained. She said she was so tired and so sore she just wanted to sleep but had to struggle along to the nursery. Such very different treatment I had at home with you.

There was a huge thunderstorm one afternoon and the rains broke which eased the debilitating heat of the month of October.

Sorry so short but did not want your birthday to get mixed up with our preparations and departure from Mufulira.

Love you,

Mum

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