Men and women had to fight for their lives. Whilst men were in the trenches fighting for their country's life, women during World War 1 had one important role. Becoming nurses and helping in the hospitals to save people's lives. Nurses were recruited from both the nursing service and the civilian profession. There were at least 2139 nurses served abroad between 1914 and 1919 and there were about 423 nurses that worked in military hospitals in Australia. Lots of nurses died during active service. A lot of women volunteered to join the VADs (voluntary aid detachment) and FANYs (first aid nursing yeomanry). VADs came from a variety of backgrounds for example cooks, domestic servants, and laundry workers. Their medical training was basic, but they still went to war zones and comforted the badly injured soldiers.
It was a cold, holy, bloody, and permanent war I had to depart my house, leaving my family and friends behind. I would travel by train to get to my quarters where everything happened. I thought that war was a life-changing experience you would leave more mature. We would work from sun up to sun down and barely get any sleep. That did not bother me because I enjoyed by job. The conditions would make the situation more depressing as it was always cold and sometimes rainy. The rain did not facilitate at all our jobs as it would make the floor soggy and damp which would cause a lot of humidity. The sounds of the battlefield could be heard from my quarter where I worked. This would overwhelm me because I could only think of all the people that were getting hurt. My quarter was placed on the front line near the trenches where the men fought during the war.
In the mornings it would be bitterly cold, half-dark, and misty. Sometimes it would be a marvelous day despite all the tragedies. What I mean by this is that every day in the hospitals and the quarters would be a tragic day, but some were better than others. We could say that me and my sisters (sisters are the other nurses) would go through different emotions in one day. The worst ones are when your patients die, and you think of the family that is going to receive this heartbreaking information. At night I could only see the splendid stars and the great luminous moon that gave light to the world. I could also hear the boom, boom of the canons. We would share rooms and sleep together or if not, we would share rooms with the civilians that were serving in the war. I found it extremely hard to sleep because I could hear the guns and the room would shake. The food was quite repetitive we usually ate beautiful meat and we also lived for the most part on non-flavored and dry beans, potatoes, and soups with the same flavor which were fried in the frying pan.
During World War 1, I went through many mixed emotions stress, happiness, sadness, anxiety, and admiration for the mean that were fighting for our country. I would always double-think things before doing any action but during the war, I couldn't think of things twice because time was so precious someone could die if you were slow. Every time that I had a break, I would write in my diary what was happening up to that point and what my feelings were. During my breaks, I would also write or read letters that I'd receive. There was always a clear setting in my head of the world I had the feeling that in the city center, there was a happier atmosphere, and down in the trenches there was a depressing atmosphere. My life during this period revolved around saving people and curing wombs, I have also witnessed deaths.
There was this tragic day when my live changed completely and at that moment I realized how important my job was. I was in my quarter checking on the patients if their blood levels were fine and if they were eating. Suddenly a load of people rushed in with a man who was bleeding out and had a big womb in his head. So many thoughts rushed through my mind at that moment I was paralyzed I didn't know what to do. Everyone was shouting telling us what to do and get for them. I just stood there looking at the man who was bleeding out feeling so useless. I was just praying for the man to survive and to be able to get back to his family that was waiting for him at the city center. They managed to get the bleeding to stop and stitch up his womb the only problem that they encountered was that he lost lots of blood and wasn't going to make it through. I just froze and my heart sank when I heard the news. I just hoped that the next morning was going to be excellent.