Stuverums Barnhem

These are some of the kids Mom helped take care of and at least one nurse in the back :)

This is Mom's copy of the book
she was taught from. 

     The nursing school I went to was called Stuverums Barnhem, and it was run by the Red Cross. I started there in May of 1945 and ended my course there that November. There were about eight to ten of us girls who worked and studied. We were working toward a degree or certificate to be a barnsköterska, a child's nurse, a pediatric nurse. The same teacher taught the kids there who were school age and she taught us girls who worked there. We studied in a book called Barnavård (Childcare) and we got hands on experience taking care of the kids. We studied health and children's diseases. Every so often a doctor came out and gave us lectures.
     I don't remember how many kids there were altogether, but there were two floors. The littlest kids all slept in one big room and we took turns to sleep in that room at night. The bigger kids were spread across several rooms downstairs with a few in each. I remember when I

first got there. I took a taxicab from Västervik out there and in every window there were people peaking out, not just kids but grown-ups too, and I thought, "How funny they are! Haven't they seen a car before?" It didn't take very many weeks though, out there in that isolated, lonely environment, before I was at the window too when a car drove in.

Maj's graduation photo

          In six months, I only went into Västervik two times. The head nurse who managed this home was Pentecostal and they had some big meetings, revivals you might say. She would take two girls with her each night she went. We rode bikes into Västervik, 7 kilometers. One time, my best friend there Maj Sjöblom and I were chosen to go with her. The only other time we got leave while we were there, Maj Sjöblom and I got half a day off. We borrowed bicycles from the home and rode into Västervik and saw two movies. We hadn't seen anything but that home and those kids and nurses for months so it was exciting to see something different. I remember one movie had David Niven in it. (Note: I think this might be the film released in 1944 in England under the name The Way Ahead and in the US as The Immortal Battalion).

Well, anyway, all of our tests and test scores were examined by the board who ran this home. When it came time to take our final exam, we went to take it one or two at a time, so the home wasn't short on nurses. I was set to take the exam by myself. Brita and Rut i Herrefall came out. They took a train and a taxi out to the home. They stayed over night. There was a room where family could stay sometimes and they stayed there that night. I took the test during the day and then there was a special dinner that night and a little program when I was given my diploma. Sister Maja, the woman who managed the home, she wanted me to stay on there and be sort of in charge of some of the girls but I just couldn't. I was so lonely for people and for home that I declined.

Mom always had an interest in photography. She calls this one, "Moonlight over Gamleby Bay"