Flying Angels(6)

Lizzie went home for the summer, to stay at her family’s summer home in Maine. Both girls came back to Annapolis at the end of August feeling rested and ready to start their second year of nursing school. They were assigned to the hospital and were usually on different rotations. Audrey spent a month in the maternity ward, while Lizzie went to orthopedics, followed by a stint in pediatrics, including the nursery. By then Audrey had done a rotation in the TB ward. Their training exposed them to all the specialties, and once they graduated, they would have the choice of working in a hospital, a doctor’s office, or private-duty nursing, which was essentially what Audrey did for her mother. She had learned some additional treatments and techniques to make her mother more comfortable, which Ellen was grateful for. She was impressed by how much Audrey had learned.

   Lizzie was in particularly good spirits when she returned to Annapolis and moved back into the dorm of the nursing school. She’d had a brief but fun summer romance with the older brother of an old friend. He was working at a summer job in Boston and came to his family’s home in Maine on weekends. It wasn’t serious, and they had both agreed that long-distance relationships were too hard so they didn’t try to prolong it. He was going into his senior year at Dartmouth, and was planning to work for a bank when he graduated. He was a nice boy and they’d spent some good times together, even if the romance didn’t have a future.

Lizzie wasn’t absolutely sure that she wanted to go back to Boston when she graduated, and she talked to Audrey sometimes about going to work in New York if she could find a job there. She wanted to see more of the world than just Boston. She talked about California too, but that seemed like it was on another planet, and for now she had nursing school to finish in Annapolis, before she made any big decisions about her future. Audrey admired her spirit of adventure. Lizzie always said that if her parents wouldn’t let her pursue the career path she really wanted as a doctor, they couldn’t keep her tied to Boston forever too. The life she would have there would be entirely predictable: a job as a nurse in a hospital or a doctor’s office, a husband as soon as she could find one, and children immediately thereafter. She wanted more out of life than that. Her options seemed numerous to Audrey, whose future would be even narrower, living at home and caring for her mother.

   Neither of the girls had a revolutionary spirit. They were expected to follow their family traditions. They talked about it sometimes late at night, when Lizzie spent the night at the Parkers’ and they talked about their futures. Lizzie didn’t want a life entirely designed for her by her parents. They had already stopped her from doing the one thing she wanted: medical school. She wanted a voice in the rest, to make her own decisions.

The week they started their second-year classes in nursing school, war was declared in Europe. Both girls followed it with interest, with the reassurance from the White House that America would not be drawn into it. President Roosevelt assured the American public that they would not participate in another war in Europe. But it was concerning anyway, to read about what was happening. Will came home on leave at Thanksgiving, and said he was sorry America was determined not to get involved. The country didn’t want to engage in another war. He was still an ensign. He had had some combat training by then, and he would have loved to engage in the war in Europe.

Lizzie was spending Thanksgiving with them, with her parents’ permission. She was in awe of Will when she met him. Tall, handsome, glamorous, exciting. At twenty-three, in his uniform, he looked like a movie star to her. She was twenty and a very pretty girl, but he treated her no differently than he did his younger sister, teasing them both like children. Ellen and Audrey were thrilled to see him. He had just been transferred to the Naval Air Station in San Diego, California, and he loved it there. He volunteered no information about his love life and answered none of his sister’s questions on the subject. But it was easy to guess that he was dating all the girls he wanted and had time for. Flying remained the love of his life and was his main focus. He was flying a North American SNJ by then. It was a single-engine fighter trainer. It had two seats, one for the pilot and the other for an instructor. It was a thrill to fly and Will loved flying it.

   He had a quiet, serious conversation with Audrey about their mother before he left on Sunday night to return to his base. It had been a warm, easygoing family weekend, and Lizzie loved being part of it. The Parkers seemed to get along better than she did with her parents, although she was very close to her brothers.

While he was there, Will had noticed that their mother could no longer get out of a sitting position without help. Her arms seemed weaker, and walking had become even more difficult for her. Audrey had to go into the bathroom with her, and bathe her, to make sure she didn’t fall. Her muscles had gotten weaker, but her mind was sharp and clear.

“How do you think Mom really is?” he asked with deep concern. It was sad to see her slipping deeper into her illness, and less able to do things for herself. He could see the life his sister had in store for her. Audrey never complained about it. They both wanted their mother to live for many years, but sooner or later, Audrey’s whole life would center around their mother, and caring for her. The skills she had acquired in nursing school were already serving her well.

   “It’s pretty much what you see. She’s going to have to be in a wheelchair all the time soon. She can hardly walk, and she falls a lot.” She had fallen out of her wheelchair just that morning in the safety of her bedroom. Audrey was wondering when they would have to move her to the only downstairs bedroom, Will’s old room, because she couldn’t negotiate the stairs. “She still tries to do as much as she can for herself, but she’s lost a lot of muscle control in her hands this year,” Audrey said as gently as she could. She knew it was hard for her brother to see Ellen like this.