Chapter 29
Towards the end of May, I noticed the return of a worried air about Jewel, more intense than before the Easter holidays; and in the second week of June she had asked me outright if I could help her with a problem after we both went off duty at four that evening. I had willingly made myself available and had not been surprised at her request to give my opinion on a confidential matter.

Her story had been that her very good friend had reason to believe that she was pregnant but, to avoid publicity, was afraid to verify it with anyone on staff. What should she do?
My suggestion then had been to tell her friend to check with a midwife, giving her the name of one who was my friend, also – a retired colleague who was capable and confidential. And, sad to say, the outcome had been as feared.

I didn’t have to ask the name of her friend, that of the person responsible, nor what had been the proposed solution to the problem. There had been no apologies from him for the cold, calculated, cut-and-dried application of currency to its solution, despite prior assurances of the right resolution should their behaviour have had the result that it did; and Jewel’s best friend, hitherto confident, enterprising and one of the three brightest of her group, the last according to no less a person than the Chief Surgical Officer, became fearful, tentative and melancholy.

Fortunately for her, she had the stalwart support of my protégé, who, from day one of her trials, had sympathized, counselled, shared her burden and travelled the road with her to the final resolution of her dilemma.

The currency offered had been for the purpose of erasing the evidence and rendering the donor free and unfettered to pursue his destiny; and this might have been accomplished had it not been for the friend who discouraged the victim from taking the apparently easy way out, a solution acceptable to her own mother, incidentally.

When Sonia had admitted to Jewel that she was afraid to accept the money to commit a crime (abortion is illegal in our country), but would be needing it to support her child, she had been able to convince her that holding the money would be like becoming a party to the crime in the eyes of the law, or as deceitful by the donor/accomplice unless she confessed her intention to him.

She had reported back to Jewel that he had advised her to keep the money when she had told him of her decision not to have an abortion, so her conscience had been clear on that score; but little had she realized then that there was still more trouble ahead.

ooo0ooo

One Sunday, after taking Sonia to church with her on her day off and spending it trying to cheer her up, Jewel had dressed to report for night duty. She had asked Sonia the routine question when leaving whether she was all right, and had received the reply that she had a slight headache. Advising lightly that she should take something to get relief, she had left promising to see her in the morning.

On returning to the dormitory at six the next morning, however, Jewel, noticing that Sonia’s bed was empty, had made a quick search and found her in a heap on the floor of one of the toilet cubicles. She had raced back to the hospital straight to Jerome’s office where, out of breath, she had struggled to get words out as to what was wrong. In tried and true strategy he had said quietly: “Stop,” followed by “Who, where, what? And, having received condensed replies, told her to sit down, gave some instructions on the intercom, and had left.

Returning some hours later, he had found her where he had left her, reassured her that Nurse Duncan would be all right, proposed giving her a sedative, which she had foregone, and sent her to the dorm to get some sleep.

As soon as she had woken up later, the scene of her friend crumpled and hemorrhaging on the bathroom floor had returned vividly to mind; and she had got up and walked slowly to the nurses’ lounge to find out what she could. The fact of the pregnancy was naturally already well-known, and also that Sonia was now in the post-surgical ward but not being allowed visitors yet. Worried about her friend, she had lost her appetite, but had forced down some food later and reported for duty at ten that night.

The next day she had been able to visit Sonia, who had said she had taken one of two tablets someone had given her for the headache she had mentioned, but had had difficulty falling asleep. After a while she had finally dozed off but had woken up with a striking pain in the abdomen. Thinking it might be gas, she had sat on the toilet for a while but, passing none, had stood up, only to double over when another pain had struck. She had then started to sweat cold and must have fainted, as, awakening later, had found herself on the floor unable to get up. She had moaned for help, but no one seemed to have heard her and she had remained there until Jewel had shown up the next morning.

In no time word had been all over the hospital about the case and speculations had begun – there being no secrets in the town, much less the hospital – about the name that would be called in connection with paternity.

Sonia had remained in ward for a couple more days, after which she had returned, but had been confined to dorm on two weeks’ sick leave. Then the investigations had started into the circumstances and causes of her illness; as well as consultation with Jewel about possible consequences and tentative plans. Whether she retained her job or not, and this was up in the air, she would not be permitted to remain in the dorm and would have to find somewhere to live; and this was something in reference to which she particularly wanted to speak with Jewel.

When she had told her mother of her decision not to abort, her mother had flown into a rage and said she “didn’t know where she was going with her belly, but it was not on top of her.” She had had her own troubles with her gentleman, who owned a bar, the room behind which was their living quarters. Sonia had shared the small space with them until she had entered nursing school at sixteen, the same year she had graduated from high school and maintenance from her father had stopped.

And, her mother had added, she better not bring that nurse friend of hers, the one who was encouraging her in her foolishness (a reference to Jewel) anywhere near her, as, if not for her the whole matter would have been settled by then!

Thus, Sonia was indeed between a rock and a hard place! She was the illegitimate child of a father who had eventually married a woman who refused to have Sonia around their children because of the ill-will between the girl’s mother and herself.

This lady had not taken Sonia’s father away from her mother. The fact was that after Sonia had been born, her parents had separated because of her mother’s bombastic ways. She had taken Sonia’s father to court for maintenance even when he had been paying this voluntarily, demanding more. The magistrate had even reduced the amount, something unheard of before, but her father had continued to pay the original amount in an effort to keep the peace. This had not been achieved, however, as her mother had sought every opportunity to embarrass or humiliate her father, his wife and their children.

Dolores, Sonia’s mother, was half-Spanish, the daughter of a dark-skinned Creole man and a woman from one of the surrounding republics, who had taken up with another man when their daughter had been only a few months old. When the new relationship had not worked out, she had tried to return to Dolores’ father who, by then, had married a Creole like himself. Abandoned, she had come upon hard times, but had refused to let Dolores stay with her father and the “black” woman he had married.

From such a troubled background, Sonia, in an effort to break the tradition of her mother and grandmother, two very wilful, selfish and conceited women, had adopted a pleasing style of behaviour and a good work ethic out of necessity; and from the beginning of her nursing training had excelled in everything she had attempted. Sister Havers, the head theatre nurse, had been so impressed with her performance and potential that she had recommended her highly to Jerome, who had found that she had lived up to his expectations of her work on the team.

She had become Jewel’s best friend and champion when the shy trainee had come to the capital and, encountering the malice and jealousy of Gertrude Atkins and others, tended to shrink from contact with the rest of their group and keep to herself. Sonia, who had fought her way up from difficult circumstances, had sympathized with Jewel, encouraged her to defend herself and not let people trample on her rights, often taking on Jewel’s abusers and putting them down.

I had been unaware of all this until Jewel had confided that Sonia had saved her from giving up and returning home, and that having her support had inspired in her the confidence to stay the course, and that now that her friend had nowhere else to turn, it was unthinkable for her to abandon her; and she was willing to make any sacrifice possible to provide whatever help she could.

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The rumour going around was that investigation had revealed that the tablet Sonia had taken for the headache was responsible for triggering what had threatened the abortion of the embryo, but Sonia would only say that a friend had supplied it in answer to the question of where it had been obtained.

A small committee comprised of Dr. Branche, the Chief Medical Officer; Nigel, the Hospital Administrator; Sister Havers representing the Surgery (Jerome, as surgeon performing the operation having submitted a report); and Matron Ebanks, had been appointed to conduct the enquiry.

Jewel, as one of Nurse Duncan’s close friends, along with others, had been invited to consult with the committee, and she had been surprised to find out that a remark she had made to her friend when in hospital had been noted and she had been asked to explain what she had meant. When she had quoted the saying that “full-belly man tell hungry-belly man k’ep heart,” she had never imagined it would be interpreted to suggest that she and Sonia were conspirators of some kind.

In answer to the Committee’s questions, she had explained that when she had quoted the saying to Sonia, all she had meant was that it was easy to give good advice when you were not the one suffering, but wanted Sonia to know that she had her sympathy in her troubles, so she should not be downhearted.

Dr. Branche had asked why she had gone to Mr. St. John and not to Dr. Francis, the gynecologist, and Jewel had answered that it was to save time, as he was usually the first to report on duty, and she had known that quick action was necessary.

Dr. Branche had taken another angle and observed that he understood that Mr. St. John was a friend of her family and queried whether she might not have been seeking his indulgence, obliquely inferring that she might have had a hand in an attempted abortion, and hoped for his sympathy in a cover-up since it had failed.

The usually soft spoken and shy Jewel had startled the Chief Medical Officer by stating boldly that he had asked that question because he didn’t know her, but that she could assure him, one, that she could never endanger her friend’s life by that kind of action; and, two, if she were ever involved in any kind of wrongdoing, Mr. St. John was the last person she would ask for that kind of help.

And if you are wondering how it is that an outsider could learn such details of a closed meeting, my answer is that in Belize where stenographic, clerical and other interested parties are involved, it is difficult for secrets to be kept; and while I’m not one to search out information I will not bypass it, especially when it concerned my protégé.

Jewel’s interview with the Committee had ended at that point and she had been excused while others had taken her place; and after three more days they had concluded the sessions and given Jerome their assessment of the situation but had left it up to him, as Chief Surgical Officer, to decide whether to terminate Sonia’s employment.

In the meantime, the CMO had informed Jerome that Jewel had applied for permission to live off the compound after such time as Sonia had delivered her baby, which had led to Jerome’s requesting a word with her in his office, she worriedly confiding afterwards how the session had gone.

The meeting had begun with his stating that, having facilitated her presence on the compound, he hoped she would not mind sharing with him her reasons for wanting to move; and she had explained that Sonia had asked for her help in renting a small house along with her, since she would not be allowed to live at the hospital after the birth of her baby and she had nowhere else to go.

This had led to a barrage of questions from him, beginning with why she felt it was her responsibility, at such a young age, to deal with a matter of such gravity? What about Nurse Duncan’s family – her mother, her father?

When she had tried to explain that Sonia’s mother had told her that she could not return to live with her and her common-law husband bringing such a burden with her, and that her father had not been informed, Jerome had interrupted to enquire why not? At her reply that Sonia’s father had made it clear that he had satisfied the requirements of the law up to her sixteenth birthday and could not afford anything more as he had a family and other children to maintain, he had queried whether a problem of this dimension did not qualify for extraordinary attention from him even though she was no longer a minor?

Distressed by the anger and impatience he had displayed at her answers, Jewel had said, she had fallen silent; but after a while he had returned more calmly to the subject, asking whether she did not have financial obligations to her own family?

She had admitted to sending money home each month, but that the arrangement with Sonia would be with what was left over. She would still be having her meals at the hospital, so it was just rent and incidentals that would be their expenses. He had raised his eyebrow at this, then asked what would be the other parent’s contribution to the welfare of the child?

When she had replied that since the father did not want children at this time, Sonia could not force it on him, Jerome had commented that they seemed to think that fatherly responsibilities were optional!

He had asked her whether she, as Nurse Duncan’s friend, had ever tried to convince her that she could not carry such a heavy burden alone, that it was not fair to herself or her unborn child. Jewel had replied that she could not pressure her friend, who was already in a depressed state of mind, into any other point of view after Sonia had admitted that she had made her bed hard and would have to lie in it. Sonia was already aware that her (Jewel’s) resources were very limited, but her main need was for moral support, and she, therefore, could only stand by her friend to the best of her ability.

Jerome had enquired whether the father had not contributed to the dilemma, yet he was getting off scot-free while his offspring was being condemned to a precarious future, but Jewel had answered that that would be his loss, that some things had to be left to a Higher Power and that there were worse things than poverty.

Jerome’s comment on this had been that the Higher Power she had referred to had given human beings the ability to use their intelligence to solve their problems; but Jewel had answered that sometimes you were overpowered by them and had to do your best then leave the rest in His hands and have faith that He would provide what else was needed.

He had gone on to say that while he admired her loyalty to her friend, they seemed to be overlooking the entitlement of the child: and shouldn’t this be the responsibility of both its parents, of which neither had the right to absolve the other?

When Jewel had made no comment on this, Jerome had told her that her behaviour brought to mind the incident of a seven-year-old taking on the job of husking a dozen coconuts, hopelessly overestimating her abilities, something she seemed to be repeating!

She had protested that the comparison was unfair since she had then been a child who did not know her limits, but that she was now an adult who was aware of her capabilities. He had scoffed openly and asked her age, which she had declared would be twenty in two months.

His rejoinder had been that that meant that she was now nineteen! That in fourteen months she would be twenty-one, but that did not change the fact that she was now only nineteen!

He had brought the meeting to an abrupt end by stating that he needed time to consider such questions as what would happen to the child should she or its mother have an accident or become ill or incapacitated in some way, inviting her to give more serious thought to the whole situation, also, before speaking with him again, as he was convinced that she had been too hasty in coming to a decision!

Chapter 29 to be continued