Today is the first of a 7 day countdown to the release of Ila’s War on November 11, 2020, Veterans’ Day. To celebrate I’m sharing excerpts from the cache of letters I have. I used this material as background to help me understand the bigger picture but I wasn’t able to work it directly into the book.

Nevertheless, I think you’ll enjoy these snippets because they are Ila’s own words telling family members what she was doing, seeing, and feeling.

This first piece is about Ila’s adjustment to school. She lived at Hinch Hall which is identified in the photo below as the Nurses’ Home. And worked at Bell Memorial Hospital, pictured in the center below, and the Ward building at the far right.

Excerpt from letter, mid-October, 1934, one month after Ila started nursing school at KU

Dear Folks:
I just came to my senses and realized that I hadn’t written to you yet this week and it’s no wonder I guess. I have been so excited over going on duty. I had a terrible time yesterday though. I went on Tuesday and all I did was scrub bed pans, etc. Fold linen and scour tubs and bowls and make three closed beds.

Yesterday I was assigned four patients. Of course I’m on the male ward. They’re lots of fun though. . .There’s one boy there, about 16-17 years old that hopped a freight and got his right arm and left leg cut off. He has been there for months and now he has a large bed sore on his hip. It’s eaten clear through to the bone. It’s all inflamed and running. They have a terrible odor. . . .

I’m in bed with two hot water bottles. My hand bandaged with infection and sweating¹ . . .

Miss Wayne [one of the instructors] took us through the hospital to see some of the unusual skin grafts and diseases. One of the girls fainted and one vomited. The rest of us didn’t see anything to get sick at. Most of us are hardened in (But not too hard). . . .

I’m getting along just fine with my work and classes. I got 3 straight A’s in three Bacteriology tests. And is it ever tough. It takes about 5 or 6 hours daily to prepare all my lessons. But I don’t mind, gee: it’s great, all the work with different kinds of patients, all ages and at present I’m in the ‘barracks’. [Like most hospitals of the time, Bell Memorial was segregated and the barracks was the name of the part of the hospital reserved for African American patients.]

Saturday a.m. they brought an O. B². in. She was beginning to have pains then, but at 6 p.m. she felt okay and there were no signs so the doctor told her she could go home. Well, Sunday a.m. just after I got to work, she came back and before we could prepare her for the delivery room, she delivered. Well, I didn’t know one thing about it so I couldn’t help much only this is what I did get to do. They clean the baby off with olive oil and so they handed her to me and said to clean her. She was the sweetest little thing. Black fuzzy hair and unusually dark for a new baby. Well, after I had cleaned her all up I dressed her and weighted her. It was really a sight to me. Seems like there’s always something exciting going on around here. I surely like it.

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¹One of the perils of the medical profession, prior to the discovery of penicillin and other antibiotics, was the possibility of spreading infection from a patient to a nurse or vice-versa. However, Ila didn’t specify the source of her infection. Whatever the cause, thankfully she survived as she noted in a letter about a week later, “My finger is alright now . . .”

²O.B. = obstetrics patient, i.e. pregnant woman about ready to deliver

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Day 6 Countdown — The fire at Hinch Hall — February, 1935