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God be with you till we meet again (1918)

lettersofnote.com

1–10 of 120 posts

Re: God be with you till we meet again (1918)

#5

What does "Keep the Bouells open" mean?

Unless it's something specific between them, perhaps it means to keep the heart open, to stay in kindness and compassion. Which would be a traditional, positive thing to say to a dear friend at the end of a letter. Or a physician joke between them, alternatively.

https://www.etymonline.com/word/bowel

Re: God be with you till we meet again (1918)

#6
Question, about this part of the letter: "I have four day nurses and five night nurses (female) a ward-master, and four orderlies".

Does anyone know why it was important to point out they were female? Were army nurses typically male?

Anyways, I'm reading about the 1918 flu a lot lately and came upon parts of this text multiple times. I'm still not sure if it's making me more or less paranoid about Covid-19, but it's definitely fascinating.

Re: God be with you till we meet again (1918)

#7
post #6

Question, about this part of the letter: "I have four day nurses and five night nurses (female) a ward-master, and four orderlies". Does anyone know why it was important to point out they were female? Were army nurses typically male? Anyways, I'm reading about the 1918 flu a lot lately and came upon parts of this text multiple times. I'm still not sure if it's making me more or less paranoid about Covid-19, but it's…

I'm sure if we start a Twitter storm about it, we can get him cancelled. /s

Personally I think it was just observational, perhaps they were the only women in the place, so they were the exception. From what I know, historically nurses have been mostly female - but would be interested to find out if this was different.

Re: God be with you till we meet again (1918)

#10
post #7
post #6

Question, about this part of the letter: "I have four day nurses and five night nurses (female) a ward-master, and four orderlies". Does anyone know why it was important to point out they were female? Were army nurses typically male? Anyways, I'm reading about the 1918 flu a lot lately and came upon parts of this text multiple times. I'm still not sure if it's making me more or less paranoid about Covid-19, but it's…

I'm sure if we start a Twitter storm about it, we can get him cancelled. /s Personally I think it was just observational, perhaps they were the only women in the place, so they were the exception. From what I know, historically nurses have been mostly female - but would be interested to find out if this was different.

Yup that was my understanding as well. Not sure why I'm being downvoted, it was a genuine question lol
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