She teaches Bridie how to wash her hands, sterilize equipment, and help around the ward. At first, Bridie’s lack of education or experience frustrate Julia. After Sister Luke leaves, Julia tends to her other two patients, Ita Noonan, who is becoming increasingly delirious, and Delia Garrett.Ī young woman, Bridie Sweeney, arrives as a volunteer to help Julia. Julia asks Sister Luke to find someone to help her in the ward. When Julia arrives, she learns from the night nurse, Sister Luke, that one of her patients, Eileen Devine, died during the night. She commutes to the hospital, where her assignment is to oversee the Maternity/Fever ward, a makeshift ward of only three cots for pregnant women who have influenza infections. The novel takes place over just three days, beginning on the morning of October 31, 1918, the day before Julia’s 30th birthday. Julia’s father and stepmother live on a farm in the countryside. Julia lives with her younger brother, Tim, who fought in World War I before the British Army discharged him. Not only is Ireland involved in World War I, with many Irish men gone to fight for the British, but the 1918 influenza pandemic is ravaging the world. The novel follows Julia Power, a nurse working in a Dublin hospital in 1918.
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