Utmost Admiration for an Amputee

There’d be forty-eight beds in the ward and twenty-four on one side and twenty four on the other, of a... of a partition and we called them the old timers that had been there for more than a month and they would relate to the new ones coming in and they’d give them a little note on their table and say, “anytime of the day and night that you need help call out this number and I’ll be there.” And that was the most amazing thing to me because you could hear the numbers being called out during the night whether they just needed to talk or somebody to hold their hand, but it was such comradeship between... these fellows that were there. It’s something I’ve never forgotten, no. Nothing but the outmost admiration for an amputee. They had more strength than we had. They were amazing. They accepted everything that was offered to them in the way of treatments and some of them were pathetically ill and far from home because there were no spaces left in Toronto or Vancouver hospitals and it was just a constant turn over of, of amputees and they were all amputees in that ward.