Barbara H. Delaney, RN
Graduate New England Baptist Hospital

1944 Dreams
by MFrost Delaney

She graduates New England Baptist, now
a new R.N. Her youthful face–it beams.
Despite the war abroad, her future seems
all paved with happiness. She’s made a vow:

She’ll have a life she’ll call her own, career
and marriage too. Her high school beau away
but safe, not stationed at the front. Next May
they’ll wed when he comes home–her future clear.

It all unfolds a bit as hoped, until
the children come. Her job is changed from nurse
to nursing, housework, tending home–the curse
her mother lived. But not forever. So …

She motions through the fifties, sixties. Then
goes back to school, becomes a nurse again.


 

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