Miss Ballinger's Retirement Party

Miss Ballinger, President of the Worcestershire Royal Infirmary Nurses' League, talks about her retirement party at South Bank Hospital and a very special cake. R2015.003.001 #nursing #hospital #nurse #WorcesterRoyalInfirmary #nursinghistory #GMMedicalMuseum #InfirmaryWorc @gmmedicalmuseum @infirmaryworc

Transcript: 'It was a very nice do, and in came a cake, ‘what’s it say on that cake?’ and of course all the girls at South Bank started to laugh, I didn’t understand what, what the laugh was, I said, ‘well, it says ‘mother’ on there.’ 'Yes,' they said, ‘didn't you know Miss Ballinger? We called you mother.’ ‘No,’ I said, ‘I did not know this! I didn’t know this. Why? Why?’ ‘Ah, well, you see, every time you had to ask us could we change a shift or do extra, you always used to say ‘now, what about home? What is your husband going to say about that?’ I didn't know I was saying it I suppose, but anyhow, apparently I did and so they called me ‘mother’ and so I had a cake with mother on.'

(c) Charles Hastings Education Centre