Kind Young Nurse

• Anastasja Hughey, Grade Y3
• Short Story
• 2013

It was the 4th of July 1918. At a field hospital in the Somme in France a young nurse named Anastasja was attending to many Australian soldiers being brought in after a big battle in a place called Le Hamel. Anastasja was a kind young nurse, who always had a smile and a caring word to offer the wounded men. Anastasja had volunteered for the medical corp, when many of her friends in the country town of Bourke had signed up to do their bit for their country. Anastasja was the daughter of Polish immigrants who had fled Poland in hope of a better life in 1901, when she was just 2 years old.
During her rounds a handsome Australian soldier named Eric caught her eye. As she was changing the bandages on his injured leg they began to talk about many things, including their lives, family and their dream to visit Ayres Rock in Uluru. After many weeks Anastasja and Eric had got to know each other well, and a young romance began to bloom. Eric however was soon to be returned to the front as his injury had healed. Everyone had heard the rumours that the Germans were running out of fight and the war would soon be over. Before Eric left again for the battlefield, he made Anastasja a promise that he would come and find her in her home town of Bourke and take her to visit Ayres Rock when this was all over.
By February 1919 Anastasja was back home in Bourke and she still had not heard a word from Eric in all these months. Naturally she began to worry, ''is he dead or alive?’’ She quietly said to herself. When one beautiful morning came a knock at the door. As Anastasja slowly pulled the door open, there he was standing before her with a smile as bright as the day. Eric had been one of the lucky ones. He was home.