Isolation 1928

In 1928 my Mum experienced isolation . She was nine years old, and she contracted scarlet fever.

So they carried her in a blanket to the nearby isolation hospital, and there she stayed for weeks that turned to months. At first she was in a ward with other children, but then it was suspected she had diphtheria, so she was put in a small isolation ward, where for some days or weeks she was totally alone.

She couldn't have visitors of course. All her Dad and her Auntie could do was to wave at her through a sealed window. No-one told her anything. She had to lie flat all the time. She had no books or other entertainment. She had never been away from home by herself before and she was so homesick and cried so continuously that the staff gave up trying to console her.

And yet Mum was a resourceful little girl. To while away the time in the isolation ward, she counted on her fingers. She wasn't sure how many hundreds there were in a thousand so she allowed twenty, to be on the safe side.

More than sixty years later she wrote an account of that hideous time, and the memories were still fresh and vivid. But what stands out in her account is that she remembered so many funny things. So many stories about the other inmates, so many things she found to laugh about. Such a brave little girl.