Nursing in the Family (Beth's 50th Birthday) by George

Here is the tale of Beth’s 50th birthday. The girls had been ribbing her for sometime about what they should do to mark her 50th birthday. Beth had confided in me that the girls (by that she meant her close friends) obviously had something in mind and she was probably going to end up minus some or all her clothing. I mentioned this to Kath knowing full well that she would pick up on it and if the girls weren’t planning anything they would be now. She smiled, a smile I knew well.

I wondered if they would do anything at work. The early 90’s had seen major changes in nursing and pranks were all but phased out.

Beth was coming to the end of her duties for the day looking forward to a night out with the girls. We’d been out the night before which was her 50th birthday. She was completing her rounds and entered one of the wards bathrooms to find a welcoming committee. It was her close friends, a few ward colleagues and my two daughters. They had a cake and some mock Champaign alcohol being a no, no. They celebrated then my youngest daughter said that they had a present for my wife. A well-wrapped box was presented to Beth from somewhere behind the crowd. She began to open it. This was the distraction. Before Beth could re-act the girls, my two daughters had tackled their mother to the ground and Kath had set about her. They’d got her shoes off and turned her over to undo her zip before she really had chance to react.

Beth now realised what was happening and began to struggle to find extra pairs of hands coming into play. She was in no time at all down to underwear her tights being ripped off. It was common for nurses to be stripped to pants and bra in the changing rooms, sometimes topless by design or fortune (not wearing a bra), but occasionally naked.

Beth soon realised that they weren’t stopping at her underwear. Soon she was completely naked. They picked her up and dunked her into the bath, very cold water. She got out quickly but the rest of them had scarped taking her clothes with them. All that she was left was the box. She thought about trying to make it back to her office but at that time of day she’d run into countless people. She opened the box to find message.

After she had sat there for about 10 minutes, she plucked up the courage to look out the door to see a towel over the rail on the opposite wall of the corridor. Just to far to reach by leaning out. This meant she had to step out and get it. Now stood naked in a hospital corridor. Towel retrieved she dried herself.

Now she had another problem. No way could she go walking around in just a towel. She had no choice she had to do as the message said and put the towel back. Now naked again she waited. She looked out twice before on the third occasions as promised where some high heels. She had once more to step out and recover these.

Then after another wait and a further look out there was a coat. Which was all she had to wear all night whilst doing a pub-crawl. Well that’s the story she told me to explain coming home at 3 o’clock in the morning just wearing a coat.