Page 124 of Sisters Under The Rising Sun

‘I’d like that, it will give us a chance to say goodbye. Although I don’t know how to say goodbye to you, Mrs Hinch, you have done so much for us, all of us, not just us nurses.’

‘Nesta. Call me Gertrude. My name is Gertrude.’

The two women walk back to the nurses’ hut arm in arm. Mrs Hinch steps inside to a sea of expectant faces.

‘Ladies, it has been a privilege and an honour to know you. Godspeed.’

Nesta gives her one last hug.

‘Bless you, Gertrude, you are one of a kind. I’ll never forget you.’

‘Nor I you, Sister Nesta James.’

No one attempts to sleep. There are meagre possessions to be packed, uniforms to be inspected and changed into and, of course, the excitement of finally ‘going home’.

The camp lights pick out the huts in the dark, as the women gather in readiness for their final transport. As they step outside, into their last few moments in this humid jungle ‘home’, a thunderous sound of clapping erupts into the night. Cheers and whistles rend the air. Women and men line a path to where two trucks await, their engines running.

‘How did you know?’ one of the nurses asks.

Before anyone can respond, Nesta answers, ‘Mrs Hinch!’

‘You said my name, Sister James?’ A smiling Mrs Hinch steps forwards. ‘As much as you would probably prefer to disappear into the night, we could not let that happen. I may have mentioned you were leaving today, but they did the rest.’ Mrs Hinch spreads her arms wide to embrace the population of the camp.

Mother Laurentia, Sister Catherina and Dr McDowell come forwards and hug each of the nurses.

‘I’ve still got your Bible,’ Betty tells Sister Catherina.

‘You keep it.’

‘I’ll never forget you,’ the doctor tells the nurses. ‘We’ve suffered and lost, but we would have lost so many more without your dedication to your training.’

By the time the nurses reach the waiting trucks, after hugging and saying goodbye to so many women along the way, the sun is already peeking over the trees. Ena and John, supporting Norah, are last in line.

As the nurses approach, John extends his hand to Nesta. ‘There is so much more for me to hear about you and what you have done for my wife, and all the women here. I want you to know I will be forever in your debt. My thanks are not enough, but they’re all I’ve got right now. Please know they come from the bottom of my heart.’

Nesta nods, unable to say a word. She looks at Norah, who is also nodding, also unable to speak. Nesta reaches out and gently strokes her face, wiping away her tears.

‘I’m going to say something, I have to,’ Ena says. ‘Sister James, Nesta, dear friend, I will spend the rest of my life telling everyone I meet about the incredible Australian nurses I had the privilege and pleasure of knowing once upon a time in a land far away, and their dynamic pint-sized leader. You saved my life; you saved so many lives, and paid the ultimate price when you lost your own fellow nurses. We will find each other again.’

‘I am no longer an only child; with you I have two sisters,’ Nesta manages. ‘You both have given so much to so many … I’m so sorry. I’m finding it hard to speak. I love you both. Until we meet again.’

Fighting back her tears, Nesta allows herself to be helped on board a truck. They are escorted out of the camp to resounding cheers and calls of goodbye. And then they’re driving down a narrow path into the jungle, and away.

Two days after the nurses leave the camp, Norah, Ena, June and John are told by Ah Fat they will be leaving too.

‘For once, you are not the proverbial bad penny, Ah Fat,’ Mrs Hinch tells the translator.

‘Bad penny?’

‘Bad penny, man. Do you not know it? And you such a fine translator. It’s someone who always turns up with bad news.’

‘But news is good,’ Ah Fat insists. ‘You are going home.’

‘Oh, never mind,’ Mrs Hinch says, with a smile. ‘Today, not even you can ruin my mood.’

‘Thank you, Inchi.’

Gathering their things, the women report, along with dozens of other sick and injured men and women, to be loaded onto trucks for the journey to Lahat. The remaining men and women, including all the Dutch nuns, come to see them off.