"'With the return of Chummy, 'and her impending new arrival, 'life at Nonnatus House felt full of excitement and fresh promise." "'If clouds were gathering we could not see them." "'And if the winds of change were blowing... 'we had yet to feel the breeze." "'To us, the skies were blue." "'It was a warm and fruitful autumn 'and we took pleasure in assuming 'all was safely gathered in.'" "I have to say, it's frightfully kind of your ma to send all these baby clothes." "Were these really all yours, Cynthia?" "I think my little brother wore some of them, but they've been gathering dust for years." "Mother was telling me that the mother of pearl buttons on the cardigans originally came from her... wedding dress." "Oh, no!" "Oh, hang me, draw me, quarter me, Cynthia!" "It was a family heirloom, you should never have trusted me with it." "I'd have sooner wrapped Baby in brown paper." "The morning post's arrived." "There's one for me!" "It's from Sister Bernadette, in the Sana..." "Sanatorium." "It's a picture!" "Called The View From My Window." "She says, "Thank you very much for the dead butterfly," ""I have passed it onto the doctors here and I am awaiting" ""their verdict." ""Thank your father for his kind letters," ""I shall reply to them in due course."" "What does "in due course" mean?" "Sometimes, it means one day and, sometimes, it means soon." "Off you go now." "You'll be late for school." "Remember, Sister Monica Joan is not to be permitted to answer the telephone." "So, whoever is on call must sit within earshot and sight of the desk." "We do try." "It's getting harder and harder to keep her occupied..." "Chummy needs things for the new arrival." "If we organised wool and needles," "Sister Monica Joan could be knitting baby clothes." "The only child they'd fit would be the mutant infant from the Planet Of The Martians!" "Put her on blanket squares." "Blanket squares?" "She'd be bored to tears!" "She could knit them in her sleep, just like any fool." "Then she can sew them altogether, and some deserving person will get a lovely bedspread." "Dolly?" "!" "What's taken you so long?" "I've been on pins all day." "It's a five-hour drive from Gosport, Dad." "Pat on the back would be nice." "Well, you haven't driven all the way yourself?" "Where's your husband?" "He got a ship!" "Straight off, day after his discharge." "Merchant Navy ain't like the Royal, you get a charge, you have to jump to." "But, Dolly, you know perfectly well you're in a... interesting condition." "It's not that interesting." "Little scamp kept kicking me in the bladder, made me drive all the faster!" "Oh, I'm embarrassing you now, aren't I?" "Come on, give us a kiss, you daft old bugger." "So, where d'you get this from?" "I hired it, out our savings." "Come on!" "Ahh!" "Look, one grandson." "Here you go." "Hey, hey!" "Hello, little fella!" "He's got a name, Dad." "Anthony." "Yeah, I know what you called him." "Come on, let's get you inside." "Whoa-hoa!" "You're a big boy, ain't ya?" "You do realise we'll be coming to inspect your marital quarters soon, Chummy, making sure they're suitable for home delivery and so forth!" "Meanwhile, you're going to need a few more baby nighties, Chummy." "Time to set to with the Singer!" "Baby's wardrobe's going to have to get in the queue, I'm afraid." "I still have to finish the maternity edition of my nurses uniform." "Are you sure you feel up to working, Chummy?" "You've only a few weeks to go..." "Oh, but I'm absolutely brimming with beans." "We're terribly shorthanded!" "I can't spend another day sitting round on my posterior, watching the rest of you tie yourself in knots." "Gosh." "It rather reminds me of the night before a tiger shoot in Rajputan." "I could never sleep a wink, once all the nets and guns had been laid out on the verandah." "Chummy, you're having a baby, not taking up blood sports!" "Excuse me." "Sorry." "Only, er, somebody's in the bathroom, and they've been there for ages." "I think it might be a nun." "Sorry." "I say, is there anybody in there?" "Yes, me!" "Can a woman not have a bath in peace?" "Sorry, Sister." "What a good thing that the Great Silence does not, in fact, commence for another 33 seconds, because it just gives me time to warn you that my Sisters and I will not want to come in here ever again" "and find the seat of a certain item standing upright!" "Oh, Sister Evangelina, I absolutely prom-..." "It's not for long." "It's for long enough." "Oh, this wretched girdle!" "I've a bally good mind to write to Playtex." "Steady." "There." "Trixie, show me how to start it." "I know you know." "Engine trouble." "Fetch a whip and thrash it like a horse!" "Jimmy!" "Hello, Jen!" "Back from the tropics, Chummy?" "Rather." "And no jokes about excess baggage." "I'm afraid we've heard them all before." "You must both be rather thirsty, after brandishing that theodolite around all morning." "I should say so!" "Can we persuade you to accept refreshments?" "You'll have to bring them out here." "We're under contract to the Council, and I strongly suspect they have us followed." "No sneaking indoors, in the wake of pretty nurses, sadly." "Sorry, ladies." "This is Alec Jesmonde, my colleague and partner in crime." "This is Trixie and Chummy, both stalwarts of the nursing scene." "And this is Jenny, whom I've known forever." "Hello." "Hello." "So, will it be tea, or Nescafe?" "Tea for me, if it's no trouble." "And he'll have Nescafe, strong enough to stand a spoon in." "Almond sponge!" "Mrs B made you a cherry slab, as well, but Sister Monica Joan chose to spare it the journey." "Sister." "I had a set of X-rays taken yesterday." "And I've responded so well to the triple treatment" "I no longer have active disease." "I'm going to be discharged next week, to convalesce at home." "Oh, that is the most wonderful news!" "The difficulty is... that I'm still not entirely certain where my home is... or ought to be." "Well, until you are certain, your home is with us, amongst your sisters." "Could I trouble you for some clothes?" "Clothes?" "Have you none here?" "Only the habit." "And I don't feel able to wear that now." "I don't remember you liking strong coffee." "Exhaustion of the new parent." "Boy or girl?" "Little girl." "Caroline Francesca." "Do you know, Jenny?" "That little baby's the sweetest thing" "I ever saw." "She's got these lips that look as if she's about to kiss you." "And sometimes, when I bend over her cot, her hands sort of startle and spread out like little starfish." "So it's turned out all right, then?" "More all right than I dared hope." "You've made a full recovery from your illness?" "I don't have to ask you that." "I can see with my trained eye." "I've good reason to be grateful to your trained eye." "I didn't do anything." "You didn't leave my side." "I've grown to love nursing more and more." "I find myself feeling quite passionate about it - what I can learn, what I can achieve." "It's become the thing that matters most to me." "Really?" "Yes, really." "I would have thought there might be some lucky chap on the scene, making your heart beat faster, all of that." "No." "Pity." "I don't think so." "There's some badly-spalled brick on the front elevation." "You might need to come in close on that." "Why ARE you taking photographs?" "Just making an inventory of the buildings in the district." "Great Gothic hulks, like these, are on their way to being historic curiosities." "When I first arrived, I was terrified." "Kept thinking a cloud of bats was going to fly out of the window." "Feels like home, now." "Smile for the birdie!" "Oh, Dad, what d'you have to wear a suit for?" "You smell of mothballs." "I'm not bringing you just anywhere." "Nurse Noakes!" "What-ho, Fred." "Oh, and this must be Dolly!" "We've heard such a lot about you." "You can come straight through." "Don't give me special treatment, just on account of His Nibs." "Not at all." "You timed it like a dream." "'Ere." "Oh!" "Oh, here ya go." "So it's been decided that Sister Bernadette will not be returning to us for the meanwhile, but will go to Chichester as a house guest, while she considers her future with the Order." "But why would she want to leave, at all?" "Why would she give up now, when it's been her life for so many years?" ""I have desired to go where springs not fail" ""to fields where fly no sharp and sided hail," ""And a few lilies blow..."" "Keep your head down, and get on with your knitting." "Six squares do not a blanket make." "Gerard Manley Hopkins was not a professed religious, yet he perceived the motives of many who choose holy orders." "And yet springs do fail, and hail does fall, sharp enough to make us bleed." "Sister Bernadette is not suffering a loss of faith." "But she has come to question what God requires of her." "Beyond that, I'm not prepared to comment." "I don't know why you don't let me make a stand for that bath." "You'll do your back in, all that kneeling down." "Dad, he'd have it tipped over in no time!" "Oh, I made one for your mum, and she was glad of it, I tell ya." "I often think of her at bath time." "Ye." "Happy memories." "They're the best ones, I'm telling you." "I drove past the bombsite on me way over and it brought back the Blitz, like it was yesterday." "Me and Marlene being lifted out the rubble by a policeman, still in our nighties." "I should've been there, Doll." "You were fighting a war, Dad, trying to stop that sort of thing from happening." "And it did stop happening, in the end." "Sister Bernadette's suitcase." "Found it in the store room." "Logged in the book, 1st of July, 1948." "All her paperwork is here on file." "She came straight from the Nurse's Home at the London and was here from her first day as a postulant." "The National Health was about to start, and she was needed." "Utility shoes." "She can't go walking out into the world in these!" "Or any of this." "She'll look dated." "Dated, and out of place!" "People will stare." "These are the only things in the world that belong to her." "And she has asked for them." "I remember when she took First Vows, chose her religious name," "I thought she'd had her head turned by that film." "We had a lot of that in the '40s." "Young girls would come here and you'd wonder what brought them." "Was it The Lord, the War or The Song Of Bernadette?" "At least they came." "New vocations are dwindling, by the year." "Well, no good grousing, we must trust to Him." "I'll give these shoes a once over." "Smell damp to me." "I say!" "I've come to ask about that scooter." "Is it still broken down?" "I believe so, yes." "Well, I brought my toolkit along." "I haven't had my hands on a scooter since I was living in Rome, and I'd love to play my part in restoring it to glory." "It's the property of the Order." "You'll have to talk to Sister Julienne." "Pack!" "Pack!" "Pack!" "Will you all put a sock in it?" "!" "Have a bit of respect for your Akela." "Today, we're starting work on our Handicraft badge." "Ohhh..." "Yes." "We're going to be learning the Japanese art of paper folding." "Booo..." "And Dr Turner has kindly agreed to come along and show us all how to make an origami frog!" "And here he is!" "Sorry I'm late." "Timothy, there's a box of paper squares on top of the piano, make sure everyone gets one." "And I want you to concentrate very hard on Dr Turner's instructions, because if you follow them correctly, there's a simply marvellous bit at the end, where you get to blow into a frog's bottom... and make it three dimensional." "Sleepy boy." "Now, you should have something that looks a bit like a diamond." "If you fold each of the four sides inwards, making a long sharp crease with your thumbnail, you should start to see the legs take shape." "I reckon mine's got three!" "Dad!" "I'm not making you a packed tea again, if you're going to keep leaving it on the draining board!" "Ah, I come straight from Nonnatus!" "Evening, Nurse." "Wouldn't mind, only there's a steak pie in there." "Homemade." "I was all day stood in the kitchen, prising tubing out of kidneys." "My feet are that swollen, I had to come here in me slippers!" "May I see?" "Got some right funny looks, I can tell you." "I need you to take a quick tinkle... in this." "But that's a good teacup!" "I need to carry out some routine tests." "If everything's shipshape, you can just pop along to clinic as usual on Tuesday." "All right..." "I don't suppose you got any aspirin in there?" "Me head's splitting." "Oh, hello!" "The, um, problem seems to be with the choke lever." "It's come adrift from the carburettor on the right side of the engine." "Gosh." "No wonder it won't go." "Well, I've had to unscrew the air filter, so I can access the connection point." "I'll tell Sister Julienne." "She said to say thank you for your help, and to bring you some tea and biscuits." "Ah, biscuits?" "Marvellous." "Garibaldi, I'm afraid." "We used to call them fly cemeteries, when we were kids." "So did we!" "We were always pleased to see them, though." "Any port in a storm, during rationing." "If I get this engine going," "I'll need to take it for a spin, to make sure it's properly tuned." "You can come with me if you like." "I'm afraid I'm on call." "Which would make it most improper." "Stop kicking him, Jack." "Come on lads, left to right." "Really sharp folds..." "Sit still." "No skylarking." "Gary!" "I shall be back in two shakes of a lamb's tail." "Now, if you've been following the instructions correctly, you should have something that looks like this." "It looks nothing like a frog!" "It looks like a tortoise what's been run over!" "Ah, what you have to do now is turn it around this way, blow into the hole..." "And lo and behold!" "A fully inflatable, three-dimensional amphibian!" "Doctor Turner." "May I trouble you to come into the kitchen?" "Of course." "I don't need all this fuss!" "I walked round here no bother!" "Dolly." "As Doctor explained, toxaemia is a treatable condition, but we do need to get you somewhere where you can rest in peace and quiet, and where Doctor can carry out more tests." "What about Anthony?" "Well, I'm quite sure you can leave him to Grandpa." "A baby will be a cakewalk compared to the boiler at Nonnatus House." "What about me?" "Go and help Bagheera with the clearing up." "I'm in." "Your Granddad's boy, yes you are." "Yeah, that's it, lad." "Put some wellie into it." "I've had to learn to be good at all sorts of things since my mum died." "My dad says, "Learn to be independent." ""One day you might be on your own."" "Uh-oh..." "Uhhhhh!" "I've been overdoing it, that's all." "I know it's a perfectly beastly shock." "And so unfair." "It's frightfully uncommon to have toxaemia with a second babe, when all went smoothly with the first." "I'm worried my Dad won't know what to do with Anthony." "Come, come." "When I was at school, I had this perfectly terrifying old matron, but she used to say, if ever one found oneself in a tight squeeze, one could keep one's composure by reciting slowly" "Psalm 123, taking deep breaths between each line." "I don't know Psalm 123." "Well, I'm quite sure your favourite song would do the trick." "♪ Catch a falling star" "♪ And put it in your pocket" "♪ Never let it fade away. ♪" "Bravo!" "Deep breaths." "♪ Catch a falling star" "♪ And put it in your pocket" "♪ Save it for a rainy day. ♪" "That sounds far more jolly than a dreary old psalm." "I shall have to listen out for it on the wireless." "When did this come?" "This morning." "There's been no warning." "No indication of any kind." "It's not enough we've had all the shenanigans with Sister Bernadette, this just puts the tin hat on it!" "Sister..." "I suggest we keep this to ourselves until the situation becomes a little clearer." "Wakey-wakey, campers." "Rise and shine!" "Already had breakfast in bed." "And I put you down for the knobbly knees contest." "Oh, 'ello!" "What you washed him in?" "Silvikrin." "All over?" "Dad, it's shampoo!" "Fred, I'm sorry, but you're interrupting bed rest." "Sorry, Doctor." "But I won't get any rest wondering what bloody buggerlugs is up to with my baby!" "Men aren't totally incompetent, Mrs Smart." "And babies do bounce." "Only when you drop 'em!" "Doctor, I've just had a tiny thoughtette." "Dolly, if you could get a bally good look at Anthony for two whole minutes every day, at precisely the same time - say eleven o'clock in the morning - would that be enough to reassure you?" "Well, that depends, don't it?" "But if everything was in apple-pie order, with Anthony spotlessly clean, well-fed and beaming?" "Wouldn't that make you feel better?" "Yeah..." "I s'pose." "Well, Nurse Noakes clearly has a plan." "And I'm sure nobody's going to argue with her." "Come on, then." "I won't give up!" "On the carburettor or the choke lever?" "On you!" "My ultimate goal is to take you out, but quite frankly, I'd settle for a smile." "You'll have to excuse me." "I'm on my rounds." "The day has dawned." "Arrange a toll of bells." "What's happening?" "I can't get my girdle on." "D'you want me to pull on the straps?" "Peter, Charles Atlas could pull on the straps, they'd never meet across this tum!" "And that's the end of that." "Yes." "What's it the start of?" "I think it's perfectly absurd." "Sister Monica Joan's supposed to be knitting blanket squares, to keep her out of bother." "But she's slowing down." "So she'll never knit enough to make a whole blanket, and realise it's all make believe." "Can't imagine who would want such a repellent thing, in any case." "Nonnatus House, midwife speaking." "Hello, Trixie." "Oh, hello, Jimmy." "I thought your hour of need had passed." "Can I speak to Jenny, please?" "Hello, Jimmy." "Jenny!" "Listen..." "Some friends and I have put a bit of jazz group together and we've persuaded Caesar Jack's club to let us do a set on Thursday night." "I didn't know you played any instruments." "I tried the double bass and settled on the drums." "The thing is, Jen, we're going to look like utter chumps, if no-one turns up to hear us." "And I hoped you might bring some of your friends along." "Well, I'm not sure how many I could muster." "Bring anyone." "Bring the nuns." "Tell them I'll give them free beer." "Well, I..." "We'll have a Babycham, thank you very much, and we expect to see them lined up at the bar, with a whisky chaser for Sister Julienne." "Marvellous!" "Well, Dolly, I was always an utter dunce at maths, but even I can see these measurements are shaping up delightfully." "You given much thought to names yet?" "Oh, gosh, no." "Far too busy!" "I take it Anthony was called after his papa?" "Oh, no, after me father-in-law." "My dad went mad." "Well, silent mad." "He never said nothing at the time, but I don't reckon he's said it from that day to this." "He always calls him The Nipper." "Oh, but he absolutely dotes on him!" "I don't doubt it." "It's a funny old fandangle, family." "Sometimes, I'm telling you, it's like trying to plait soot." "Yes." "I suppose it is." "For pity's sake, Jenny, stop pulling your sweater down." "People will think you've had some sort of an accident!" "Trixie, I never go out for the evening in slacks!" "I believe Princess Margaret does it all the time." "See?" "Even Jane knows what's what in a jazz club." "I read an article in Woman's Own." "That's why I'm wearing a polo neck sweater." "Jimmy!" "Thank you!" "Jenny!" "Jenny!" "Babycham." "Jane." "Drink." "Oh." "Thank you." "I had a letter from Mater today." "That's nice." "She enclosed a cheque for ten pounds, said she hoped things wouldn't be too frightful, and closed by saying she was dashing off to bridge." "Madeira's a long way off." "For which, mercy may we give thanks." "She was never going to pitch up with a cold chicken and rinse baby's napkins through." "But I feel so frightfully disconnected from any sort of... advice." "I was trying to think of nursery rhymes today - songs my mother taught me, all of that." "The only lullabies I know are in Hindi!" "I shall look forward to that." "Peter..." "What have we got to give this child?" "We've no proper home." "No money." "Not much in the way of family, now your parents have moved to Walton-on-the-Naze." "You're going to be a wonderful mother, Camilla." "You're a nurse, you've got half the skills off pat." "Oh, yes." "Well, you just wait till I give myself castor oil and advisory pamphlets!" "Have you got any pamphlets on how to calm down?" "You're working all the hairs from the brush into the gloss." "Sorry." "Another two Babychams and a bitter lemon, please." "Who's drinking bitter lemon?" "Me." "Meanwhile, Cynthia isn't drinking anything because she doesn't like the toilets." "I am sorry I didn't tell you Alec was in the band." "He really likes you." "I don't like being bullied into things." "Jenny, I'm on your side." "Can't you see that?" "You said it to me once - you're my friend, and I want you to be happy." "And, one day - maybe this week, maybe next year - you're going to be happy with someone else." "And I'm going to be glad." "I see." "Jen, I'm determined to be glad!" "Falling for someone would set you free!" "From a life of drinking bitter lemon and your own daft rules, if nothing else!" "Three and four pence, please, miss." "He'll get these." "And have a double for yourself." "Thank you very much." "A... another one." "Of course." "I'm afraid we're going to have to dance together or I'll never hear the end of it." "And neither, I strongly suspect, will you." "Do you want to dance?" "No." "Not really." "But dancing seems to be the thing that people do when they don't want to be thought rude, or stand-offish, or... whatever unfortunate impression I might have given so far." "Dancing is what people do when..." "They think they might quite like each other?" "Yes." "This might be the very last night of clear skies." "People will be lighting fires soon, for winter, and every inch of heaven will be engulfed in smog." "I can see The Plough." "Oh, yes." "The Plough was my very first constellation." "I think mine was The Plaiedes." "The Seven Sisters?" "I liked the idea of a cluster of girls, all clinging together, in the middle of the heavens." "Can you see the handle of The Plough?" "Yes." "Keep looking and tell me what you see." "It's not one star, it's two, almost overlapping!" "Alcor and Mizar." "Congratulations, you've just passed the eyesight test for the Roman army." "I thought about that when I went to do my National Service." "It certainly beat reading the alphabet backwards off a card, but there was also something grimly consoling, knowing that 2,000 years ago some other poor conscripts stood there, vaguely hoping they might fail." "Will you wake the nuns, when you let yourself in?" "I don't want you on bread and water for a fortnight." "It's almost dawn, they'll be up already." "We keep strange hours at Nonnatus House." "How long have the sisters been here?" "Since 1899, I think." "D'you know where they'll go next?" "It's all they can do to serve the people here." "I don't think they're planning to expand." "I meant after the demolition." "Demolition?" "It's under a compulsory purchase order." "This land's been earmarked for a new through-road." "♪ Blessed child from above" "♪ His comfort, life and fire of love" "♪ They gave our faith" "♪ Perpetual light" "♪ The darkness of our guided sight" "♪ Father, Son and Holy Spirit" "♪ Amen. ♪" "I can't believe it!" "I just can't!" "I think it's perfectly ridiculous banging on about faith when the wrecker's ball's hanging over our heads!" "It's not just Nonnatus House." "There's a question mark over the parish hall, too!" "We're here to serve the mothers and babies of the district." "What are we supposed to do?" "Put up a Big Top in Victoria Park?" "Yes, and you can buy yourself a caravan, while you're about it, cos you, Peter and the babe are going to need somewhere to live!" "We'll be like Flanagan and Allen - Underneath The Arches!" "That's about as much of a joke as I can manage today, so please don't start singing." "Oh, dear." "Do you suppose it's her hormones?" "I feel like bursting into tears and I'm not 38 weeks pregnant." "Right..." "Petri dishes, test tubes, pipettes." "I want you to count them, list them, and wash them." "I hate half-term." "Morning." "'I've been discharged.'" "Sister Bernadette?" "'I'm supposed to go to Chichester, but I won't.'" "Why's that?" "I thought... for a long time, that I was in the wrong place." "I wasn't." "I was just living the wrong life." "I wrote to you." "Yes." "I don't know if I said too much." "Or, or not enough." "You said... what was necessary." "And I'm coming back to Poplar." "When?" "Today." "There are procedures to be gone through." "But it'll be months before you're fully fit!" "'You need to rest and to convalesce.'" "I've had enough rest to kill a mule!" "And I know my own mind, for the first time in many months, which I find remarkably invigorating." "I'm on my way to catch the bus." "You are not travelling 30 miles 'by public transport!" "Sister Bernadette...'" "Forgive me." "But I don't answer to that name any more." "Can I help you, Nurse?" "I wondered if you wouldn't mind taking a quick peep at Dolly Smart?" "One moment." "I'm sorry." "'I really am." "But... duty calls.'" "I understand." "Well, it looks as though things might be on the move, but he's in a good position for delivery." "Nurse Lee is due in shortly." "I've already drawn up instructions for management of labour, so I shall leave you in the capable hands of Nurse Noakes." "You're lucky, she's one of our finest." "You're meant to be washing equipment." "I've finished, and you owe me half a crown." "I thought I'd come with you on your rounds." "I'm not going on my rounds." "Wotcha, Doll!" "Dad!" "Do you know how to send a shore-to-ship telegram?" "Why do you want to know?" "Because I'm in bloody labour, aren't I?" "You're going to be sending your son-in-law some news!" "What about that, then!" "?" "What about that, then!" "?" "If I see her, shall I shout at her?" "Stop!" "Sister Bernadette!" "No." "Leave the talking to me." "Dolly, I think the best thing would be if I break your waters for you." "It'll speed things up a little." "Bravo!" "Are you all right?" "Never better." "Just getting swept along, in the excitement of it all." "I want you to breathe deeply for me, Dolly." "That's it." "That's it." "This is it now, Dolly!" "Squealing like a piglet, just the way we like them!" "Dad!" "There's a woman in the wrong clothes and I think it's her." "What if it had started raining?" "What if you'd got lost?" "I WAS lost." "I got the wrong bus." "I was on the right road." "Yes." "I know you so little, but I couldn't be more certain." "I am completely certain." "I don't even know your name." "Shelagh." "Patrick." "There." "We've made a start." "Attention, old chap." "Another grandchild, to add to your small, but growing, collection." "Right little bruiser, this one." "Chip off the old block, a proper little boxer's face." "Actually, it's a little girl." "A bit of swelling around the eyes is quite normal." "Dolly say what she is going to call her?" "No." "I daresay Freda's a possibility." "You know something?" "She can call her what she likes." "It's all just labels, really, innit, eh?" "Like on tins of fruit." "I grew up in my bare feet." "My dad spent more on beer than he did on shoe leather." "I used to think, when I have kids, I'm going give them shoes, hot dinners, 'appy home... and I managed all three... until Hitler intervened." "When the bomb dropped, I weren't there." "And that's what makes you a parent, Nurse Noakes." "Proximity." "They don't sell that in the shops." "No." "You all right, Nurse?" "Chummy." "Something tells me your working day is over." "Something tells me yours isn't." "One delivery pack on its way to the first floor!" "Water's hotting up and I'm bringing more towels." "We can't give Chummy an enema!" "She's our friend." "If you don't do it, I will." "Come on Chummy!" "On the bed." ""High, hot and a hell of a lot!"" "No." "No." "You absolute beasts!" "Chummy, you'll have to surrender or Sister Evangelina will come and do it." "And I wouldn't put it past her to chuck in extra soap!" "Can't we just pretend?" "Send out a chamber pot with a cloth draped over it, like a sort of ruse?" "Breathe it away Chummy, breathe it away." "Everything that you handed over when you entered the Order was held in trust for your lifetime, or until such time as you renounced your vows." "I don't want anything back." "I've been given so much..." "This is the procedure we must follow." "There is something in the region of £100 to be returned to you, once you have signed the final papers." "If you would like some quiet time, you're welcome to use the chapel before you leave." "Thank you, Sister." "But I have so many things to do." "Very well." "May God bless you, my dear, good friend." "And may He bless you, too." "Is there any news?" "It's a baby, not a lubricated penguin, they don't come sliding out, to order." "And you needn't think we'll be running in with meals on trays." "You get peckish, you ask directions to the bread bin." "That's it." "That's it..." "The bally things just go on and on." "You're doing brilliantly, Chummy." "We'll examine you in a minute or two, and see how things are progressing." "I wouldn't thumb my nose at a spot of pethidine." "Of course." "We'll get it organised." "Waters..." "I felt my waters." "Get Sister Julienne." "I need an ambulance, please." "'Can I have the address, please?" "'" "Nonnatus House, Leyland Street, Poplar." "'Can you give me anymore details?" "'" "It's a suspected placental abruption." "The mother has haemorrhaged." "'Has the baby been born?" "'" "No." "She's still in labour." "'And baby's heartbeat?" "'" "As far as we know, the baby's still alive." "We need her on her left side to increase the blood supply to the baby." "Come on Chummy, that's it." "That's it." "Oxygen." "It's all right." "It's all right." "And she needs pethidine!" "Here." "Breath deeply." "This will help you and the baby." "Try to keep calm." "Chummy, stay calm." "♪ Catch a falling star... ♪" "What?" "Catch a falling star?" "Never let it... fade away..." "Just one of you, please." "Go on." "And you make sure you hold her hand!" "'Nonnatus House...'" "I've watched people do this time after time." "Sitting waiting for news, not knowing, hoping." "Never really known what they felt... until now." "She's still in theatre." "There was another haemorrhage." "We haven't got a telephone number for Madeira." "Her family don't even know what's happened." "Yes, they do." "Chummy's family's here in this room." "'Throughout that endless day and night, 'as we waited for news that didn't come, 'it seemed we had never been closer, 'never more subsumed into a single task." "'Many find the concept of holy silence puzzling." "'But as we worked and prayed, there was no need to speak, at all.'" "How is she?" "Camilla." "We've got a little boy." "A boy?" "Hello, little bean." "It's all right, I'm here." "Hello, Patrick." "Hello, Shelagh." "This is for you." "From me." "And somebody else." ""Please will you marry my dad?"" "'Through the telescope of memory," "'I see now the convent was our pole star, 'a guiding light for those who worked there 'and the people that we served.'" "'Dolly's little girl was christened Samantha, 'a rather modern name, to which some people never became accustomed.'" "'But Chummy called her baby Fred, 'after the man who showed her the simplicity of parenthood.'" "'Nonnatus House was threatened, but its spirit was not shaken.'" "'And that spirit would continue to shelter and inspire.'" "'I have never forgotten it, 'any more than I forget the days it gave me." "'The days when the world was new and bright." "'The days when I was delirious with joy.'" "You all right?" "'When I ached with love... '..and when my soul went questing.'"