Alison Cassidy - Tonsillectomy Circa 1950

A little girl with curly hair and a white face
A box of toys to be opened 'afterwards'
Two stern nurses in crisp white uniforms
with crisp white voices and disinfected hands

Lying on a narrow hospital bed
Trying to sleep without sucking her thumb
The embarrassment of a soapy enema
and not enough time to get to the toilet

The sweet suffocating smell of ether
She thought she was going to die...
Waking up with a throat of hot needles
and a fierce determination not to cry

Seven long days of pain and loneliness
and the niggling fear of abandonment
A tearful reunion with Mummy and Daddy
who believed they were doing the right thing.

Alison Cassidy

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