Nellie Carey's (Ferdinand) Photo Album (Feb '04)
 I managed to buttonhole Nellie after her full, piped organ rendition of Handel's Messiah at St Paul's Catholic Church one Sunday - only joking about the full piped organ bit but she is quite an accomplished organist but more of that later.
Nellie comes from Guyana. She began her SRN/RGN in Brighton General Hospital (BGH) in 1966 and it was during this that she had the unfortunate - sorry - fortunate chance to do her 3 months psychiatric experience in early 1969. It was then that she met the late John Barry and remembers Rosmary Day, Larry Fisher, Chris Gannon, Chris Timms, Mike Cottrell, the Lazama Sisters, Andy Ramsaran, Libby Sealy and all the West Indian gang at that time.
Nellie tells me :
'One of the funny things we got up to at that time involved Chris Timms and Barbara and the unfortunate victim was Larry Fisher. Larry used to park his car by the hospital entrance and they put soap powder all over it one night after he had parked it. In the morning it was completely covered in bubbles. He never knew who did it!
I enjoyed the 3 months so much and the insights it provided that I decided to go the whole hog and suffer it for a further 18 months. It was an enjoyable time of good training. We had to watch our P's and Q's but it was great. We were a mixed international band of students mainly from Mauritius, the West Indies and Ireland. I was the only one from Guyana but others came after me.
Later, I was a sister on Firle and I worked on Barcombe and Woodingdean amongst other wards. I returned to general nursing and ICU at Cuckfield Hospital and I worked as a staff nurse before becoming a sister. I retired in 1999.
I always had a love of drama and I got involved at BGH and , of course, at St Francis. I hope you like my Aladdin photo. I play Fatima, the Sultan's favourite. Mike Morgan produced it in 1975 and Margaret Lewes and Sue Carey were involved. John Walsh played the Sultana, Peter Towner the Sultan and also involved were Asha Salickram and Ida Butterworth. John Hall was the Master of the Harem. ( Pretty safe Harem then Nellie?JH)
As Joe says in the intro I've always had a musical interest. I played piano when I was younger but this was a bit hit and miss. Later I took to the organ with the church organist at the time helping me a lot and I also took lessons.
I met Kurt, my late husband, during my 3 months secondment but it wasn't until my training that we became romantically linked. Kurt died in 1996 and we had many good times together.
Joe asked me for a one-liner about my overall impression of St Francis. It was one of the best experiences of my life. I have many fond memories of it and I still say they should never have got rid of it! (Sorry Nellie that's 2 lines!)
I hope you enjoy the photo album.'
Thank you Nellie that was great and many thanks for the photos. I hope I've done them justice in the editing.JH |
