12 February, 1942

 After meeting at the Nursing Association Dance on 6 February (see post 'Going to a Dance') Grace and Stan returned to their workplaces; Stan to Darlington and Grace to Nottingham.  As promised, Stan wrote to Grace, a letter which arrived on 11 February.  Unfortunately we don't have Stan's early letters because Grace didn't save them, so the first few letters are all Grace's side of the correspondence.   Note the time - Grace was working nights.

Nurses Home, General Hospital, Nottingham    3.45 a.m.

 Dear Stan,

Thank you so much for your letter which I received yesterday.

 You did manage the six pages after all, even though it was with the addition of a P.S.

 I was so sorry to hear about your journey back.  I am afraid that if I had been in your place I would have felt really bad tempered when I reached my destination.  I did quite well, I was only a quarter of an hour late.

 You know, I am not in the letter writing mood, so you must forgive me if I don’t manage six pages.  As a matter of fact I am feeling pretty fed up.  A sort of reaction I suppose after the weekend.  I really did enjoy the weekend, thanks to you.  I was pleased to hear that you did.  I know that all good things come to an end but time does fly when one does not want it to.  I no sooner arrived home than it was time to come back again.  Still, I am looking forward to another weekend.  I am trying to get it after the 12^th of next month but shall not know definitely for about another week.

By the way, I hope you note, I have put you second on my list of letters.  Don’t you feel honoured? (ahem)

I will have to finish writing this letter in the day as I have heaps of work to do.  There is somebody calling me, men are always wanting something, they are worse than women to nurse.

 DAY – the same

TIME  9.30 a.m.

PLACE  My bedroom

I am trying to finish my letter but it is very nearly impossible as Kit (my friend) is quoting French and singing love songs in my ear, she is also brushing my hair vigorously over my face so that I can hardly see what I am writing, so I have a good excuse if my writing squiggles all over the place.

 I have managed to push Kit out of my room but not until she had drawn my curtains and switched off the light, leaving me in the dark.  Ah me!

 Have you been dancing since you got back?  I suppose you will have or else you will have been doing a round of the cinemas.  I am hoping to get to a trade show* in the morning but we get very little opportunity of going out on night duty.  If I do go it means that I come off duty at about 8.30 a.m., dinner till 8.40 a.m. lecture from 9 – 10 a.m. and the trade show starts at 10.30 a.m.  We get back here at about 1.15 p.m. and we are called for duty at 7 p.m.  Little girl you’ve had a busy day, what?

 I must stop rambling now as I am feeling tired and I have heaps of things to do before I can go to bed.

 What do you think, the maid has just come to do my room – no peace for the wicked.

I hope that you manage to read this scrawl, my father says he never can.  You might like to know that I can read yours quite easily, in spite of what you said.  Hoping to hear from you soon.

 Yours very sincerely,

Grace x

 * 'a trade show'.  At this time, studios sometimes produced films and then showed them on a very limited run to the public to gauge opinion.  The film may then have been taken back to the studio to be 'tweaked' before its full release.  As you can see, they were often shown at odd times of the day, such as 10.30 a.m., but it meant that shift workers could go to the pictures.

Watch out for the next letter on 23 February.