Out of the thousands of books I have in my mother’s and my combined library, my eyes rested on “Beeton’s Book of Household Management.” I pulled it off the shelf and settled in with a hot cup of peppermint tea.  I glanced through this facsimile of Mrs. Isabella Beeton’s 1861 tome, which outlines observations on all things from the history of fishes to making soups, jellies and puddings, to the management of the housekeeper and domestic servants. I was particularly interested in her chapter on Invalid Cookery, and although  it didn’t shed much light on the subject – at least not much that I could use – there was a passage that I was compelled to duplicate here:

“(2416) All women are likely, at some period of their lives, to be called on to perform the duties of a sick-nurse, and should prepare themselves as much as possible, by observation and reading, for the occasion when they may be required to perform the office. The main requirements are good temper, compassion for suffering, sympathy with sufferers, which most women worthy of the name possess, neat-handedness, quiet manners, love of order, and cleanliness. With these qualifications there will be very little to be wished for; the desire to relieve suffering will inspire a thousand little attentions, and surmount the disgusts which some of the offices attending the sick-room are apt to create. Where serious illness visits a household, and protracted nursing is likely to become a necessary, a professional nurse will probably be engaged, who has been trained to its duties; but in some families, and those not a few let us hope, the ladies of the family would oppose such an arrangement as a failure of duty on their part. There is, besides, even when a professional nurse is ultimately called in, a period of doubt and hesitation, while disease has not yet developed itself, when the patient must be attended to; …”

Continue reading →