‘Like I said, Tall Trees was originally the South London District Hospital,’ he said. He opened one of the folders and took out a photograph. ‘Here.’
I looked. There was the main building, looking very similar to how it did now, except the far side of the building looked different. And at the end, where the dementia unit now stood, was a row of very large poplar trees.
‘Tall trees,’ I said triumphantly. ‘They must have cut them down to make space for the dementia unit.’
‘I guess so.’ Finn pointed to the part of the building that was different now. ‘And this bit of the hospital fell down after a bomb.’
‘Tall Trees was bombed?’
‘Sort of.’ He sat back in his chair and grinned at me. ‘And that’s why I’m here.’
‘Spill.’
‘A bomb fell on the road outside, in early 1941. The hospital’s foundations became unstable. Word is that they’d dug out the basement to fit more beds down there or an operating theatre – I can’t remember the details – and hadn’t supported some of it properly. Anyway, that part of the building collapsed in on itself.’
‘Oh gosh,’ I said. ‘Were the patients killed?’
Finn shook his head. ‘By some miracle, not one patient was hurt. There was one chap who was injured and he did die later on but he was a member of staff, I think. And he was the only casualty.’
‘That’s amazing,’ I said. ‘It must have been very frightening.’
‘Must have been.’
‘So what’s all this got to do with you?’
‘When they rebuilt the damaged part after the war, they shored up the basement obviously, but they left the rubble as it was because it was too costly to dig it out again. A couple of years ago,they were renovating the home, and they considered expanding into the basement.’
I shuddered. ‘Who’d want their room down there?’ I said. ‘I can’t see that being popular with the residents. They all love looking out into the garden.’
Finn shrugged. ‘That’s probably why they decided against it. But as part of the plans, they had some of the rubble left over from the bomb cleared. And they found this.’
He opened the biggest folder and from inside he produced a large, A4-size book. It was bound with a stiff spine and thick covers – it looked like the old family Bible I remembered Nan having, or an old-fashioned photo album.
‘What’s that?’
‘It’s a sort of scrapbook.’ Finn did a little bounce on his chair like an overexcited schoolboy. ‘There was a nurse who worked at the hospital, whose name was Elsie Watson. She kept this notebook for most of the Blitz. As far as I can tell, she gave it to her patients and they wrote in it.’
‘What did they write?’
‘All sorts of things. Some of them wrote messages for loved ones. Others wrote down their memories of the time. They had huts here, round the back, where they looked after injured airmen from Biggin Hill.’
‘Oh that’s not far from here,’ I said.
‘Exactly. So they were in the hospital along with injured civilians and they all seem to have embraced the idea. A couple wrote poems. Or Bible verses. There are thank-you notes to the staff. Some of them drew pictures of the view from the windows or places they’d been.’ He smiled at me. ‘A few drew Elsie and the other nurses.’
‘Oh my goodness,’ I breathed. ‘That’s amazing.’
‘I know.’ Finn put his hand on the book in a territorial way. ‘I’ve had a look through but I’ve barely begun to read all the notes inside. It’s a treasure trove.’
‘How did you get it?’ I said.
‘We just got lucky really. When the book was found by the contractors, they passed it to the bosses at Tall Trees – not Blessing, the people who run the company. And one of them is a bit of a history buff so he brought it to my department for us to have a look at. Obviously with everything that’s happened recently, it’s taken us a while to get it organised but now I’ve got my mitts on it.’
‘So that’s why you’re here?’
‘Yes. I could work in my office but I like being here. It makes it feel more alive. I’m planning to read the whole book and then maybe write my own book about it. There are so many stories in here just waiting to be heard.’
‘What about the nurse?’ I said. ‘Elsie, did you say? Is she still alive?’
