Moving On
Roll forward the years, I’m a third-year student nurse. I would soon qualify and become an SRN (State Registered Nurse). I was working on a female medical ward (medical as distinct from surgical). One of my contemporaries, who was also a friend, was on the same ward. We worked well together as experienced senior students.
As well as medical patients the ward also took patients for dental surgery that required a short stay in hospital. Usually, it was removal of impacted wisdom teeth, but at this time we had a woman in her fifties who had a remarkable story. She had suffered from pain and headaches for years. She had been labelled as a hypochondriac and mostly written off by various dentists and doctors she had consulted over the years. She was on our ward because someone had finally identified that the cause of her pain was a dislocated jaw. It had happened years ago, and no one had noticed, until now. She came in to have the situation rectified. She wasn’t on the ward for long, but the ward sister suggested that my friend and I write up the case history and send it to one of the nursing journals. We did and it was published. It was an encouraging start, but my writing career went on hold as life became busy with a family and work. But I always knew I wanted to write and as my children grew, I wrote a few more work-related articles which were published.
I didn’t start writing fiction until I retired. I had many stories in my head and I began to write. My ambition was to write a book but what should I write about. It was a visit to Rennes-le-Chateau in the Pyrenees that showed me what was that. It was my daughter who wanted to go to Rennes-le-Chateau. I had been visiting the Pyrenees for years but had never been there. I went along for the ride but later my daughter told me that a visit to Rennes-le-Chateau changes lives. And it changed mine.