Shirley Osbourne (early 1950s)
Del Barnes emailed to say she couldn't make the reunion but she wrote the following:
"I was in out on the balcony of Ward 2 in 1951:
I remember they put me next to a young girl called Shirley Osbourne, she was on a plaster bed, and little did I think that 4 years later I would be back in hospital with TB of the spine and would myself land up lying on a plaster bed.
Do you remember the doctor (Huppert)? She was very short and was foreign, she was a bit of a tarter, as was the Sister (Morgan). I have quite a few photos of my time there, of the girls and some of the staff. I always remember the rain falling on our beds as the big tarpaulins held the rain.
It’s funny really although Craig-y-nos was rather a grim place you seem to only remember the comradeship of the girls you were with.
Streptomycin had not been out very long, and PAS always made me sick.
When I was in Cardiff with my spine the doctor told me that it would have taken far longer to get well if strep didn't suit me.
It seems to me that we were in the hospital about the same time, as for how long I was there, I don't think I was in there a year, its funny I can’t remember that.”
In an earlier email Del wrote:
" The staff nurse at the time was Glenys Maud Davies, and I remember receiving the letter to go there on my 15th birthday. I was to be admitted 2 days later.
At that time it was perceived that if you went to Craig-y-nos you would not come out of there. I went from a very loving family to this asture castle, and was not allowed visitors for 5 weeks.
Staff Nurse Davies was from Fforestfach, where I lived, and she looked after me as I was very homesick, the rumour was that Madam Patti huanted the wards, and you can imagine how scared I was never having been away from home.
I really could go on for ever discussing the time i spent there.
I hope to come to the reunion on the 9th Sept. You have brought back so many memories.- delphine watkins.(as I then was)."
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