Long service nurse to be honoured by community
Friends, relations and former colleagues will gather in Strathy hall this weekend (Saturday, February 6) for a ceilidh-dance and public presentation to Dorothy Mackay, Kirtomy, to mark her retirement at the end of November from a life of devoted public service.
Dorothy’s working life, full and part-time, spans a remarkable fifty-five years, all but nine months as a nurse. Well known throughout the North West as a district nurse and midwife she served in Kinlochbervie, Tongue and Melness, and Melvich till her first “retirement” in 1985 — which was postponed until a replacement was found. She continued, on call and doing relief work, and latterly as a reserve “on the bank”, till November 1998 “when my final five years of midwifery refresher training ran out”.
She describes the demanding work and everyday hardships of the post-war period but says she has no regrets. In pre-Morris Minor days, district nurses drove Austin 8s which had no heaters and had to have their radiators drained on frosty nights, an added chore on overnight stays away for births at the more remote places.
Diese Geschichte stammt aus der No 315, January 2018-Ausgabe von Am Bratach.
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Diese Geschichte stammt aus der No 315, January 2018-Ausgabe von Am Bratach.
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The Postie's Post
WHEN YOU consider that we really don’t have that many roads in the Highlands, the ones we do have seem to get a story from most people you talk to.
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‘I took to social media in the vain hope that somebody would notice’ — Cllr Currie
Bookends
“She Said He Said I Said: New Writing Scotland 35”, edited by Diana Hendry and Susie Maguire, Association for Scottish Literary Studies, 2017. £9.95.
Graeme At Large
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Fraser Darling's View Of Highland Medical Care
The “West Highland Survey: an essay in human ecology”, edited by Frank Fraser Darling, was published by the Oxford University Press in 1955. Fraser Darling (1903-79) was an English ecologist, ornithologist, farmer, conservationist and author who between 1939 and 1943 brought derelict land into agricultural production on Tanera Mòr in the Summer Isles. In January 1944 he met Tom Johnson MP, Secretary of State for Scotland, who was aware of Fraser Darling’s published works which included a popular weekly column on agricultural science syndicated in several Highland newspapers. They agreed his plan for a social and biological investigation into the problems of the West Highlands and for establishing an agricultural advisory and demonstration centre in the crofting areas. In Fraser Darling’s own words, the West Highland Survey was established “in order to examine in a spirit of scientific inquiry, to gather a solid body of facts for analysis and synthesis, which would serve as a foundation for a future policy for the region”. He continued: “The argument was maintained that if the problem were understood in its wholeness, solution would be possible”. In June 1944, a team which included Frank Fraser Darling as director and four young Gaelic-speaking field officers, began work. The resulting 438-page book includes the following account of the Highlands and Islands Medical Service, launched in 1913 and forerunner of the Scottish National Health Service. After thirty years, the surveyors regarded the service as an unqualified success, an enviable situation underlined by the number of able medics seeking work in the post-war Highlands.
From Our Archives
Long service nurse to be honoured by community
The Postie's Post
IF YOU are a regular reader of my postie’s posts you will probably sigh when you realise that I am talking about roads again this month. But I do have an excuse and that is because the Highland Council aren’t really that good at managing them at times.
Bookends
George Gunn, “The Great Edge”, Grace Note Publications, 2017. £12.99.
