Part Two - Independence

I decided that a good way to start was to go and properly introduce myself to my new boss. He only lived a few minutes walk away and I thought that it might make my first day of work easier if I knew someone. (Plus it never hurts to be friendly with your boss!)

I rang the bell and waited at the bottom of the steps for him to answer. As he came down I noticed the way he was looking at me. I almost said ‘Hey! My face is up here!’ but I thought it was better to start the conversation in a better way than that.  I held out my hand and said ‘Hello Mr Landgraab, I’m Ambrosia Dawes. I met you briefly in my interview this afternoon.’

“Ah yes…Ambrosia, you’re the new trainee nurse! How nice of you to come and introduce yourself. Would you like to come inside?” He said. I accepted his offer although I was a bit concerned about being alone with him.

His house was amazing, you could tell he had spent a lot of time and money on it. ‘You have a beautiful house.’ I said, ‘I only moved here a couple of days ago and don’t really have much of a home yet.’.

“You are welcome here any time,” he said “my wife is out most of the time and I would welcome the company.”

‘So you’re married then?’ I asked ‘Do you have any children?’

“Yes, I am married to Nancy, although I think she is more married to her work than me! We have a son called Malcolm, he was 10 earlier this month.” he said “Are you married? I don’t see a ring.”

‘No, I’m not married.’ I said. We carried on chatting for several hours and discovered that we had quite a bit in common. I felt that we could be good friends if he stopped looking at me like he did when we first met.

As I walked up to the hospital on my first day I felt very nervous. I hadn’t slept well the night before which only made it worse.  I was worrying about little things. What if they didn’t have a uniform in my size? What if I didn’t like any of the meals available in the canteen? What if one of the patients didn’t like me? I took a deep breath and walked through the door.

My first day was exhausting, and I didn’t even have to see any patients. I had been assigned a mentor to guide me through my training and the first week or two were to be spent on theory and practicing things on her. Only when I had mastered the basics would I be put on a ward.

Even though I was tired, I decided to walk over to the gym and go for a quick swim. I swam about 10 lengths of the pool and then got out. I went to the kitchen and got a piece of bread and some jam and wandered around the rest of the gym while I ate.

I found a room with a spa bath in it and decided to have a nice relaxing bubble bath to clean of all the chlorine and help me relax before I went home.

As I washed myself I thought of all the things that had happened to me over the past months and what might have happened if my family were still here. I missed them dreadfully, but I knew that if it wasn’t for that fire I wouldn’t have ended up here. I would still have been living out of my rucksack and changing town every week. At least now I have a chance at a normal life.

When I got home later that evening I saw that I had some mail in my box. I got it out and saw that it was my first ever bill!! I know, who gets excited about bills??? But this bill was my first ever one and it was proof that I was independent!

I didn’t want to miss my due date on my first bill so I filled out the required information and sent it back immediately.

The next couple of weeks flew by, I learnt so much at work and was assigned a place on a ward. Most of the patients were little old ladies who had come in with broken hips and were having replacements but there were a couple of patients who had come in because of car crashes and they weren’t much older than me.