|
Excerpted from Nurseweek/Healthweek
|
|
Seacole spent the next year in the heat of the battlefront. She dispensed medicine, meals, and even occasional entertainment. She made "home visits" to the campsites. She procured supplies otherwise unavailable. She used up her savings to obtain necessities, and when her money was gone, she began selling medicine and meals to soldiers directly to keep her efforts afloat. Her clients were no richer than she, however, and in the end, her enterprise was a financial disaster. She returned to London deeply in debt. Part of the goal of her autobiography was to apply the proceeds to her debts. "Perhaps it would be right if I were to express more shame and annoyance than I really feel at the pecuniarily disastrous issue of my Crimean adventures, but I cannot, I really cannot. When I try and feel ashamed of myself for being poor and helpless, I only experience a glow of pride at the other and more pleasing events of my career," Seacole writes. She died in 1881prosperous enough, and happy.
Mary Seacole Alexander, Ziggi, and Audrey Dewjee. "Mary Seacole." History Today. 31:45, Sept. 1981. Crawford P. "The other lady with the lamp... nursing legacy of Mary Seacole." Nursing Times. 88(11):56-8,1992. Gustafson M. "Mary Seacole, the Florence Nightingale of Jamaica." Christian Nurse International. 12(4):9, 1996. King, A. "Mary Seacole, Part 1: A Matter of Life." Essence. 4(11):32, 1974. King, A. "Mary Seacole, Part 11: The Crimea." Essence. 4(12):68,94, 1974 Messmer PR & Parchment Y. "Mary Grant Seacole: the first nurse practitioner." Clinical Excellence for Nurse Practitioners. 2(l):47-51, 1998. Payne D. "Face to face... Florence Nightingale and Mary Seacole battle it out face to face." Nursing Times. 95(19):26-7, 1999. Salvage J. "Speaking out... Florence Nightingale... Mary Seacole." Nursing Times. 95(19):20,1999 Smith JP. "Mary Jane Seacole 1805-1881: a black British nurse." Journal of Advanced Nursing. 9(5):427-428,1984. Watson C. "Hidden from history... Mary Seacole, the black nurse famous in her day for her work in the Crimea." Nursing Times. 80(41):16-17, 1984.
More about Mary Seacole
|
