In 1854 amidst the disease, filth and badly injured soldiers entered a lady called Florence:
She did an extremely difficult job caring for those soldiers, cleaning and bandaging their wounds, feeding them and being with them.
But many, many of those soldiers still died.
Eventually the war ended and Florence Nightingale returned to England.
Scientists had been working on a new germ theory.
People then, including Florence, believed that germs were only spread by touch. But they then discovered that germs could be spread through the air.
How would Florence have felt – she was doing things which would have increased the deaths of the soldiers?
Have any of you done something thinking it was going to help someone and it actually made it worse?
How did you feel about it?
Did you find a way to cope with it?
I am sure Florence Nightingale’s faith in God helped her to pick herself up and she then went on to write lots of books on hygiene and how to look after patients, which laid a good foundation for all modern nursing.
