It was an act of desperation that led me to apply for a part-time position as typist for my local doctor, if he was desperate for help, well I was desperate to escape from the most mind-bending boring job it had ever been my misfortune to hold. Needing a boost to the family coffers and also to make friends in the local area I had been working at Barclay’s Stationery Department sorting out bank books in a very repetitive system, the only saving grace of the job was the fantastic canteen who served scrumptious rolls/sandwiches and yummy cakes accompanied by gossip of the day with many friends made in a short period of time.

Dr. Wright’s temporary practice was located at Tinkers Bridge (three minutes walk from my door) with two receptionists and one Nurse, before long this had grown to include Health Visitors and second partner Dr. Das Gupta. I used Pitman's Shorthand to take dictation and was so nervous of medical terminology that I spent a good deal of time with my nose in medical dictionaries and rewriting or altering letters many times over. It was a work of art to wield a razor blade and sweep the rubber over the top copy and carefully re-insert the letter to retype the text, and ughhh! deal with the carbon copies to the best of my ability. It would be many years before we moved from manual to electric typewriters and onto audio typing, photocopying etc., and it was not until after my retirement that computers were installed – it all seems so easy now with spellcheckers, delete, copy and paste, Access, Excel and the like. The Health Visitors were a young lively team and one task was to visit schools with sex education, according to them my son (a lively 8 year old) proved to be very attentive asking most questions and providing many answers!

Great excitement was generated by the move to the purpose built Eaglestone Health  Centre which offered room for expansion this proved necessary as first Dr. Yahya, then Dr. Suleman arrived. By this time my work load increased so much that Rosemary was employed to take over in the afternoons, thankfully she approached the work in an identical manner and we formed an efficient and amicable working partnership for many years, however, it was not until the practice finally had 7 doctors that the secretaries office consisted of 2 Personal Secretaries (promotion for Rosemary and myself) plus one assistant, Diane and reception staff had expanded in a like manner.

Due to the intense nature of the work and the close involvement of a large section of staff we enjoyed social occasions at lunch times when we ‘did’ the Times crossword (provided by Sheila) and sorted out the troubles of the world or rude jokes depending on the mood we were in. Social events outside the workplace were many and varied, during the summer Pauline Binstead invited us to her beautiful home for a garden party, in those days the gang responded to my plea to dress up for the occasion. I made a grand entrance with my ‘Wonderwoman’ outfit and later with the ‘Queen’ get up. Grace was a real sport and put on a full size black hairy monkey suit I had made for my grandson’s Halloween outfit, Audrey our lovely religious lady looked grand in a Bishops robe; we were joined by Tweedledum, a schoolboy, Nurse etc. etc. The following year we looked quite posh in our garden party flowery hats but the next year it was necessary for me to bring a suitcase full of evening gowns for everyone to parade in – great gales of mirth at the resulting outcome of all our shapes and sizes for not surprisingly most of them had run out of ideas.

How it all started I don’t know but Grace had a knitting marathon and ended up making presenting everyone with a birthday gift of a “Sammy” – an extremely cute knitted scarecrow. These were very happily adopted and given appropriate names – complete with passport to travel the work with their owners on holiday - Austria, Spain, Greece, Cornwall, Scotland, Toronto and San Francisco. For our annual ‘Sammy Award Dinner” our Sammies were made up in fancy dress and prizes awarded.

One fine summers day we met u p at 8 a.m. for a coach ride for a day out to Whitby calling at Harrogate for a fish and chip lunch at the famous Harry Ramsdens, very nice if a little bit rushed in the half hour allocated for the stop. The driver was obviously not experienced for he took “the scenic route” – in other words got lost! In all we only had time to have an ice cream OR visit the toilet when we finally made it to our destination,

Our long, long journey home took such a long time we passed the time away singing our heads off and arrived back home after midnight with sore throats as well as sore bums – but with the memory of a wonder day spent with good friends

We have enjoyed a night out at the local dog track coming home broke but happy, we’ve thrown ourselves into bowling – Pauline B. coming a cropper as she forgot to let go of the ball! For several years a small group enjoyed warm evening walks around Willen, Caldecote, Emmerson Valley etc., but it was Grace and Maureen who got very enthusiastic and went into serious training throughout the3 year and ended up taking part in the Great North Race and raised a lot of money for charity.

On the very first Red Nose Day we threw ourselves into full fancy dress with no reserves, all during the day at the surgery money was collected for charity and we even had our picture in the paper.

So many wonderful Christmas parties, the first few at local hotels, one great night of entertainment at Turner’s Warehouse complete with fantastic full size Merry-go-round, cabaret and wild abandoned dancing. We’ve dined simply at The Moorings, had a good night out at The Globe where one sedate husband got sloshed, posh at Parklands and a lively event at Wilton Hall.

Yes we have had fantastically great times full of laughter and happiness but we have also shared a lot of sadness together. Dear Pauline Stephenson put up a strong fight against breast cancer; we supported her heroic efforts to overcome this illness by visiting in hospital and at home but her brave fight was to no avail much to our great sorrow. Another dear friend had a traumatic loss when her husband collapsed and died at home on his first day of retirement, our nurse had to deal with the discovery of cancer in her young son just as he was about to go to university – a short and dramatic time of suffering with eventual loss of a young life. Not in the same category as these lost loved ones but very traumatic for me to have my husband leave after 45 years of marriage, a fate destined for two other members of staff a short period later.

In the early years we were very shocked by our young doctor’s suicide – so unexpected and traumatic. Strangely enough although the event was not at the health centre the domestic staff were very disturbed by a ‘presence’ in the vicinity of his room and eventually we had to have an exorcism. Who would have thought that some 10 years later another young doctor (who had left the practice) and his wife also committed suicide in very dramatic circumstances which were to be fully reported in the daily and Sunday papers.

Our very great loss was our beloved Rosemary who was cruelly given a diagnosis of ovarian cancer which was, as is common, too well established to have a chance of survival, this coming at a time when her first grandchild was to be born, We observed her suffering over many months but her condition never offered any hope despite accepting any treatment suggested. Rosemary’s bravery was awesome, we both worked on making a lovely christening gown for little Ellie after she was born and on a her last social occasion made from her Willen Hospice bed she witnessed the church ceremony and managed to enjoy an hour or so with her close family and friends. After my retirement in July I was able to spend hours at her side both at home and at Willen Hospice and was privileged to be by her side in her final hours. Rosemary had a huge number of friends and we enjoyed a particularly close relationship. As she was an only child I more or less became her big sister. We were not at all alike, she was sweet and ladylike, very caring and thoughtful and me? well more outward and forthcoming, however, we fitted together like spoons, our working relationship was extremely successful, we loved a bargain and travelled miles for any sales – Aquascatum, Liz Clayton, Alexon, Jacques Vert (queuing for hours if necessary) – jumble and car boot sales, antique fairs, school and church fetes - you name it we were there.

There is no final chapter to the Eaglestone Health Centre tale, the practice goes on with its many changes and again there is the promise of new premises one day. Whatever happens I feel sure that the staff will continue to experience the happy working and social relationship that I have been so fortunate to experience during my working life.