Up early to get M, Cheryl and Erika off to the plane. Then bowled in Scotch pairs. Did the draw for Beauty and the Beast. Home the rest of the day and worked on draw for Tsawassen.  Started watching a TV series on Netflix and waiting for the travelers to let me know where they were. (they made it to Des Moines).

John knew that his mother would do exactly as she said. He turned his attention back to the pages in front of him. The work wasn’t hard but it was hot and in his mind was unfair that he had to have lessons twelve months a year while his two little sisters got to play. Momentarily he remembered that his twin also had to be schooled for the same twelve months, but then ‘she was just a girl and she liked the stuff’.

  Jean finished her papers and handing them to her mother said in a slightly raised voice, “All finished Mama, please may I go help Lim Siu?”

  Her mother said, “Let me look these over and then you may go.” She glanced over the pages quickly, already knowing that they would be complete and no doubt without a flaw. “Away you go, take out some cold tea for the girls and yourself.” Turning to John she added, “I am going to put on my uniform, you will hand in your paper when I return.” She rose and strode from the room.

  Knowing that he would be penalized if he wasn’t finished, John bent to his work and wrote rapidly. It wasn’t that he didn’t know, or that he was a poor student; he just preferred to be outside and loved to ride along with old Mu Hoy when he delivered vegetables and rice to the hospital and into the village.

  He put a period to his last sentence as his mother returned and held out his papers. As she read quickly over his work, he studied her covertly. It never ceased to amaze him how the simple act of putting on her nurse’s uniform could transform his mother from a tall, taciturn taskmaster into a more compassionate and softer person.

  “Very good. Now that wasn’t so bad was it?” His mother smiled briefly, her face softening. “Away you go, don’t forget to wash before tea.”

  Her teaching duties over for the day Mrs. Pearce, in spite of the heat, pulled on her gloves and put a light sweater over her uniform. She would now spend the rest of the day until early evening as the afternoon nursing supervisor.  She went out into the garden pausing to watch her two sets of twins for a moment. “I’m going now children, do as Lim says and no arguing about bedtime.” She opened the gate and walked out onto the dirt path that served as a road and continued on to the hospital only a short distance away.

    The hospital was situated about two miles outside of the city of Wuhan; the two senior Pearce’s were never able to fathom the reasoning for not building it within the city but were quite content to be out in the country and the location didn’t impede the flow of patients into the clinic. A small chapel was an integral part of the hospital and had enough seating capacity for the dozen or so converts that showed up every Sunday.

  Doctor Pearce had been given the opportunity to leave the country several times because of the ongoing conflict but he reasoned that the hospital should be safe and as he explained to the Bishop, “Besides we are English and are neutral so we are under no threat.”