Foreword
This history is the story of the career of
one nurse, Mary Ellen (Mollie) Watkin. Her career, if one
includes the very beginning, when she joined the St John's Ambulance
organization in Widnes, Lancashire, spanned at least 50 years. Including
both World Wars. She spent much of her life helping others, in the
process risking her own health and, if one reads between the lines, her
chance of marriage and a family of her own. All nurses make sacrifices
in their personal lives - perhaps much less today than in the past. They
all have stories. This is but one.
But before you read on, please heed a few notes of caution...
One of my personal ambitions when creating 'schoolsofnursing' was to add
'nurse-histories'. Biographical portraits of individual nurses, whose
career histories would otherwise remain in the shadow of their more
illustrious peers - and eventually be lost to the history of the nursing
profession. A lofty ideal...
And so it has turned out, a lofty ideal indeed. The undertaking of
research into some else's life is no small responsibility. Something
that I would caution takes no small amount of time; the avid curiosity
of a researcher - which decries the destruction of even the tiniest
trace to the past; a reasonable modicum of skill, especially in gaining
the good will and assistance of those who can help be they so willing; a
willingness to invest one's money; and an absolute determination to
reach the end of the dark tunnel which leads to the light. Not to leave
the story only half told...
This latter is a cardinal sin from which there can be no
redemption! Tinkering with the career history of a nurse, involving
other people in the chase only to then give it up, for whatever reason,
muddies the water for others who would follow the same course. Others
who find their own researches extremely difficult because potential
sources of information have learned that their own time and effort is
wasted, and will no longer help.
Lastly, even the successful researcher
has a final duty - the omission of which is likewise unforgivable. The
story must be told - disseminated - and not written up and filed away -
regarded as finished. Stories have no end, but if they are not told in
the first place they have no beginning either... It is forgotten. Lost.
Which is why we know so little about the majority of nurses who have
contributed to the profession.
Please, don't become a sinner! Finish what you start. If you can't - for
whatever reason - pass on your work to someone else. All of it.
Including any artifacts. Contribute to the history of the nursing
profession for the sake only of keeping it alive.
The Story of Mary Ellen Watkin is a good example - it is not yet
complete. All the time, all the effort, everything.... And still another
snippet turns up quite unexpectedly... I don't know whether we will ever
see the complete Molly, too much time has passed perhaps. Too much
history has been perhaps lost.
Enjoy Mollie's story as far has we have been able to take it. she would
have wanted that.. But lets start at the beginning, click 'next' and
meet Mollie!
WB. March 2009.
