For my birthday I treated myself to a fun day, which for me is going to thrift stores. Probably boring to many of you but I have a love and appreciation for old things.
This one book spoke volumes to me.
While carefully looking through the thrift store shelves of unloved books, I saw an old text book. To those in the medical field it may seem like it’s from ancient times. Why I was drawn to it, I’ll never know, but as I first saw the title, I was intrigued. Thinking it was probably from the 50’s, I was really shocked when I saw the last print date, which was 1928!
I thought “That’s cool but it’s just a text book..” Text books don’t have pictures usually and they are all business, but then I opened the pages. And there I found underlined passages and handwritten notes.
Florence Nightengale?
The clincher was this, that the original owner of the book had hand written the Florence Nightingale Pledge. I was totally hooked and was not putting this book back on the shelf.
It made me think about when I was a kid at my own doctors office. I’m kinda old, so it was back when nurses had white dresses, white shoes, white stockings, and a funny little white hat that looked a little like the paper boats my grandma used to make. I think my nurses name was Evelyn. She was tall and slender, and always smiled and had a very nursey kind of voice, sort of high pitched like it was funny that they were going to give you that shot.
This book made me wonder who this person was, how many people had she comforted or even saved. I know my friend Cheryl who was a nurse saved my former pastors life. The doctors had given up but she insisted that they shock him again. And they did and he is still a pastor today, 20 years later. Nurses are awesome and should never be taken for granted or overlooked. Remember to thank a nurse.
A family heritage
Books tell stories , not just the ones they have written in type and ink, but they can tell the story of a person’s life and character. I wish I knew who the owner of this book’s family was because this should be kept in their family.
