From This Day Forward

by Lauraine Snelling

  Freda pushed open the screen door and joined them on the porch, fanning herself with her apron. “Nice out here.” She batted at a whining tormentor. “Uff da. Can I get you anything?”

  “No, you just sit here and put your feet up for a while.”

  To Ingeborg’s surprise, Freda did just that. Would wonders never cease?

  Chapter 26

  Welcome back, Dr. Johnson.” Astrid greeted him as he stepped down from the train, Ingeborg at her side.

  He inhaled deeply and looked up and around. “Thank you. Blue sky, sunshine, ah, you are so right. It is good to be home.” He moved aside. “And, Dr. Astrid, I brought help with me.”

  Three, not two, women stepped off the train.

  Astrid gasped, stunned; her mouth dropped open. “Mrs. Korsheski! I can’t believe you are here! How wonderful!” Astrid threw her arms around the slender woman, knocking her hat askew. She stepped back quickly. “Oh, forgive me, I’m sorry.”

  “Oh no, dear, now I know for sure I am welcome, since I came without your knowledge or invitation.”

  Astrid turned to Ingeborg. “Mor, remember, Mrs. Korsheski is head of nursing at Morganstein Hospital.”

  The stationmaster interrupted. “Eh, Dr. Johnson, we need to get the train moving. You all have your baggage?”

  “Other than what is in the baggage car, thank you,” Dr. Johnson called.

  “Of course I remember!” Ingeborg smiled as she grasped Mrs. Korsheski’s hand. “It’s so good to see you again after all these years. What is your secret, that you haven’t aged a bit?” Years earlier, Ingeborg had gone to the Chicago hospital for surgery.

  Mrs. Korsheski just laughed. “I’m surprised you remember me.”

  Astrid asked, “How long can you stay?”

  “I thought perhaps two weeks. To help get your new nurses settled.” She gestured to the two just behind her. “And to see your operation firsthand. Everyone who has come out here sings its praises.”

  “Ladies, can we move away from the train before the conductor has an apoplectic seizure?” Arms wide, Dr. Johnson herded them toward the station.

  “All aboard!” The train was moving before the conductor swung aboard.

  Dr. Johnson led a bright-eyed young woman forward. “Let me introduce our student nurses for the year. Dr. Astrid Bjorklund, Mrs. Bjorklund, I am pleased to introduce Laura Lee Reineke, who has been pleading to be chosen to come here for the last year.”

  Astrid picked up on his our. Apparently Dr. Johnson did indeed consider Blessing home. What a fine way to start his new life.

  “I am so thrilled to finally be in Blessing,” Nurse Reineke gushed. “You have no idea how we all talk about it in Chicago.”

  “And Nurse Jane Wisokay, from Cleveland. She is a city girl who is hoping she will like it here.”

  “I felt exactly that way about Chicago—the reverse, of course, but you can count on being busy here,” Ingeborg told her.

  “Are we registered at the boardinghouse?” Dr. Johnson asked.

  “Yes, your trunks will be delivered there. Now you have a choice: to see the hospital or go to your rooms, if you would rather.” Astrid paused.

  “Please, the hospital for me,” Mrs. Korsheski said with a smile. Dr. Johnson nodded too.

  Ingeborg watched the nurses’ faces. “If you would rather go to the boardinghouse, I can take you there while the others go to the hospital.”

  “Nurse Reineke has not been feeling well on the train. Perhaps a rest in a non-moving bed might help,” Mrs. Korsheski said.

  “Thank you.” The girl smiled wanly.

  “Do you mind if I go to the hospital?” Nurse Wisokay asked her friend.

  “Not at all.”

  Ingeborg took Nurse Reineke’s arm. “Come with me. Hopefully we’ll have you up and feeling good again by morning.”

  “Takk, Mor,” Astrid whispered, and they headed off toward Mor’s wagon. She waved at the stationmaster. “Could you please have someone take their bags to their rooms at the boardinghouse? Thank you.” Mrs. Korsheski! Astrid still felt stunned. “I’ll introduce you to Blessing as we head east to the hospital, which is that white building you can see next to the machine plant.”

  On Main Street, she pointed to the left. “Our stores are down there, that is the boardinghouse, and this way, you’ll see my house. My mother-in-law is famous for her roses and flowers. Across the street is the Bjorklund house, where Dr. Elizabeth lived. Her husband Thorliff, my brother, owns the newspaper, and he and a group of others own the construction company that is helping Blessing grow.”

  “New buildings since I left.” Dr. Johnson waved at Amelia, who as always had a basket of flowers over her arm. “That woman is a gem.”

  “That’s for sure. Up to the right you see the grain elevator and beyond that is the Blessing Flour Mill.”

  “They got the grain elevator back up and running mighty fast.”

  “Desperation is a good incentive. That big building there not only sells machinery, but produces seeders and other parts. And there is our hospital.” Astrid motioned to the white building with the portico. “We serve patients from a ten-mile-or-more radius. Some even come on the train.”

  “And bring their diseases along,” Mrs. Korsheski added wryly.

  “That too.” Everyone here knew about the diphtheria that had come last summer on the circus train.

  “Look at the roses here too,” Nurse Wisokay exclaimed. “Right at the hospital.” She inhaled. “Oh, they smell so good.”

  “Not like Chicago, eh?” Mrs. Korsheski teased. She inhaled too. “Dr. Johnson, you were so right. Blessing does indeed smell far different than Chicago.”

  Astrid pulled open the door, and Dr. Johnson took her place, holding the door, motioning the others inside.

  Miriam came out of Mrs. Ohnstetter’s room, froze, and nearly dropped her tray of dishes. “Mrs. Korsheski!” She set the tray on the floor beside the door and ran forward. “Mrs. Korsheski!” Miriam’s smile just got wider. “What a wonderful surprise!”

  “I couldn’t resist coming.” Mrs. Korsheski looked to Astrid. “I won’t be intruding?”

  Astrid laughed. “Which shift do you want first?”

  Miriam, Deborah, and the rest of the on-duty staff lined up in the hall, including Mrs. Geddick and her daughter, Adelaide, who hustled to the end of the line. Astrid introduced her people, then the new people, saying each name at least twice. Mrs. Korsheski smiled at each as they were introduced.

  “Dinner in half an hour,” Mrs. Geddick announced, and she and her daughter returned to the kitchen.

  “That is fresh bread we smell, correct?” Dr. Johnson returned his attention to the group and grinned at the student nurse. “You will really come to appreciate her. This hospital food is like no other. She even has a garden out back.” He looked to Astrid, who nodded.

  Astrid added, “And when you are not on the floor working, you are always welcome to sit at the big slab table in the kitchen to rest for a moment. Never hesitate to ask Mrs. Geddick for a cup of tea or coffee or a snack to tide you over.”

  Mrs. Korsheski nodded, smiling. “Good, good.”

  “It won’t take long to show you around.” Astrid loved showing off her hospital. She showed them the examination rooms and the room where she performed operations, and even the supply closet.

  “That seems rather small,” Mrs. Korsheski commented. “You make do with so little.”

  “We do what we have to do,” she replied.

  They breezed quickly through the patients’ rooms and came to a stop beside Mrs. Ohnstetter, who had wheeled herself into the hall.

  After she was introduced, Mrs. Korsheski bent to take Mrs. Ohnstetter’s hand. “Thank you for the scarf you knit and sent me. It kept me warm last winter.”

  “I’m glad.” Mrs. Ohnstetter pointed to her basket. “Ingeborg brings me wool that she dyed herself, from her sheep. She doesn’t want me to run out of things to do here.”

  “Let�
�s go on to the last place on your tour, the kitchen and dining area.” As soon as they entered the kitchen, Astrid explained, “Mrs. Ohnstetter has lived here for the last year. We found her another home, but she asked if she could live here and be part of us. Besides knitting, she is like my mother, who prays for everything going on here. She is one of our treasures.”

  “So besides being a hospital, you are now becoming an old folks’ home?” Dr. Johnson asked softly.

  “Only for her. She has no more family and her heart is not the best. She’s very frail.”

  Astrid turned at the sound of the front door slamming open. “Uh-oh. Emergency.” She headed for the stretcher being carried in by four men, including Toby Valders.

  “He fell off the scaffolding. I’m afraid it might be bad,” Toby said.

  “In here,” Miriam beckoned.

  Astrid whipped off her hat and grabbed an apron. “Deborah, scrub.”

  “I will too.” Dr. Johnson joined her at the sink.

  “If you need me,” Mrs. Korsheski volunteered.

  Arms dripping, Astrid headed for the examining room, where Miriam was directing the men how to lift the patient onto the table.

  “Can you tell us what happened?” Astrid asked.

  “He musta stepped wrong and off he went,” one of the men said. He looked at Toby.

  “I wasn’t there, but they called me immediately,” Toby said. “We had the stretcher in the office just in case. He hit his head.”

  While he was talking, Astrid examined their patient. “Did he regain consciousness at all?”

  “No.”

  She looked in his eyes and ears; one had blood trickling from it, as did his mouth.

  Dr. Johnson had his stethoscope on the patient’s chest. “Heart steady.” He started checking arms and legs for broken bones while Astrid felt the man’s head and neck.

  “Get the ice.”

  Deborah brought in a pan of ice and some clean cloths.

  Astrid stood erect. “Concussion, possible skull fracture. Does he have feeling in his hands and feet?”

  Dr. Johnson pinched the appendages and got a flinch on each. “Yes.”

  “Is he married?”

  Toby shook his head. “No, single, living at the apartment house.”

  “Deborah, please get as much information from Mr. Valders as is available. Especially someone we can notify.”

  “All I know is that his name is Stanislaw Fredro. I’ll ask around among his friends,” Toby said, “but I think he is an immigrant from Poland.”

  “Poland?” Nurse Wisokay came forward and said something in a foreign language.

  The patient almost opened his eyes. The lids fluttered and he turned his head slightly.

  Nurse Wisokay looked at Astrid. “I asked him in Polish if he had relatives.”

  “Beautiful. Thank you, Miss Wisokay.”

  Miriam stepped forward with a donut-shaped pillow. Deborah lifted the patient’s head and they slipped the pillow under it, relieving any pressure on the back of his head.

  “Unless he has spinal problems, the head wound seems to be it,” Astrid said.

  Dr. Johnson asked softly, “No broken skin on the back of his head?”

  “No blood back there at all, and that’s surprising. But the swelling makes it impossible to be certain of broken bones.” Astrid adjusted the ice pack as Miriam set cloths soaking in cold water. “Dr. Johnson, if you and our orderly, Elmer, would undress him, please, and clean him up, we’ll move him into a room. Miriam, you’ll stay with him there. Watch for any changes.” She looked to Mrs. Korsheski. “Any suggestions?”

  “Not right now. I’m impressed.”

  “Thank you. I’ll notify Mor, and she’ll get the prayers going.” Astrid glanced at the clock on the wall. “I’m sure Mrs. Geddick has dinner ready, and I know she set up a table especially for all of you. Let’s get cleaned up. Come with me, please.”

  In the kitchen, Mrs. Geddick said, “Elmer is off on an errand. He’ll be back in a minute.”

  Moments later, Elmer returned from his errand.

  “You’re needed in room one,” Astrid told him, and he hurried out to assist.

  Dinner was subdued because of the accident as they discussed treatments and prognosis. Dr. Johnson joined the group after they had just begun eating and caught back a yawn. “There’s never a dull moment here.”

  After they finished eating, Astrid explained, “We did not plan anything for this evening because I thought you might want to have a quiet supper and retire early. I know how wearying that trip can be. Starting tomorrow, one student nurse will be on days and one on nights, basically shadowing Deborah or Miriam. Dr. Johnson, perhaps you would like to—” She paused and looked at him when he raised his hand.

  “May I be on call tonight? I will take the overnight shift for our patient. If that is all right with you.”

  “Are you sure?”

  “Oh yes. This is why I came here.”

  She bobbed her head. “We will introduce you to the town in church on Sunday. Many will, of course, remember you and be glad you have returned. As for office hours, we no longer use the Bjorklund house; patients come directly here. You will take the drop-ins, and I’ll see those with appointments. I know the men will be pleased there is a male doctor on staff.”

  “I thought to talk to Thorliff about housing. I’d rather not stay at the boardinghouse, if we can help it.”

  “Housing is at a premium here, Doctor. Your best possibility is that we tell the townsfolk you are looking for a place to stay—or rather, live. And put a notice in the paper.”

  He nodded.

  Nurse Wisokay yawned as well. “Would it be possible for me to take the day shift tomorrow? Hopefully Laura will feel better by evening.”

  “I have no trouble with that. Miriam is the one in charge of scheduling. Speak with her.”

  When they all stood, Astrid bid them good-bye and headed for room one.

  “Dr. Astrid, is it all right if I just follow you around?” Mrs. Korsheski asked.

  “Of course. Since you are such a surprise to me, I . . . I don’t know—”

  “What to do with me? Let’s check on this patient, and then perhaps we can sit down and talk.”

  “As long as nothing else happens. I know I don’t have any appointments scheduled for me today.”

  As soon as Astrid picked up her patient’s hand, all thoughts of Mrs. Korsheski left. His pulse was all right. She lifted his eyelids with her thumb, one at a time. One pupil closed down as light hit it. The other did not. She asked Miriam, “Has he shown any sign of consciousness?”

  “No, ma’am. What can we do but change the ice?”

  “For now, that’s what we can do.” Is there swelling on the brain or a blood clot? If only there were a way to tell. “Keep checking his reflexes and let me know immediately if there is any change. Dr. Johnson is planning to return to watch him tonight, so you needn’t put anyone else on duty to cover this.”

  “Good. Deborah’s on nights, but she’s been here half the day.”

  “Ja, I know.”

  Miriam raised her voice. “And no, you will not fill in. We now have another doctor to help take the pressure off you.”

  Astrid patted her arm. “You will not take on more either.”

  Miriam smirked. “We’ll see.”

  Astrid and Mrs. Korsheski returned to Astrid’s office.

  “Now can we talk?” Mrs. Korsheski asked.

  “I have a better idea. We’ll go to my house. I can get back here quickly if there is need. We can sit on the porch, let Amelia fuss over us, and talk all we want.”

  “Ah, my dear Astrid, that sounds sublime.”

  They took their hats off the pegs where someone had hung them and, after telling Miriam of the change in plans, left the building.

  Seated a few minutes later in the padded chairs on the back porch, with a westerly breeze kicking up, the fragrances of blooming flowers, and raspberry lemonade, along w
ith Amelia’s sugar cookies with a touch of lemon . . . perfection. Astrid unpinned her hat and sailed it to a chair. “This is infinitely better than my office or even the dining room.”

  “A bit of heaven is what I say.”

  Amelia came with a question. “Now I am of the opinion that you will be staying for supper rather than going to the boardinghouse, unless you would rather adjourn to your room?”

  Astrid looked over at Mrs. Korsheski. “It is up to you, but I guarantee that no matter how good the meals are at the boardinghouse—and I know they are good—you can be more comfortable here.” A thought struck her; why had it not come to her immediately? Because she was tending to an unfortunate Polish workman. “In fact, Amelia, might we move her here? The bed for sure is more comfortable.”

  “Astrid, I will not put you out like this. I mean, perhaps I should have told you I was coming.”

  “I definitely agree.” Amelia turned all her charm onto the woman in the chair. “Had we known you were coming, madam, these are the arrangements that would have been made. Please humor me. I so loved it when the student nurses stayed here.”

  Astrid giggled. “Amelia, for some strange reason, suddenly had new daughters.”

  “I heard. They came back raving.” Mrs. Korsheski dropped her hands in her lap. “All right, certainly, and thank you more than I can say.”

  “Good. I’ll telephone Miss Maisie. She’ll be disappointed, I’m sure; she is very protective of her guests. Your things will be right over. The bedroom on the left at the top of the stairs will be yours for as long as you are in Blessing. Now. What was—”

  “Astrid,” Mrs. Korsheski interrupted, “I think since I am a guest in your house and we are not on hospital protocol, you should know my given name is Avis. I would appreciate it if you called me that.”

  “Thank you, but I will probably have difficulty at first.” Astrid chuckled. “Now, Avis, can we talk about why you are here?”

  “We at the hospital tried to decide how we could best help you. I have an invitation for Deborah to come to Morganstein Hospital from September through October for training in hospital management. I know that is not nearly enough time, but she is such a bright and dedicated student that I think she can absorb a lot in that amount of time. But if I can shadow, shall we say, you and the others for these two weeks, observe how you are doing things, perhaps I will have suggestions for change immediately, but we can also tailor Deborah’s time to be even more helpful. Does that make sense?”