TAKE MY HAND
Episode 01-“Beating the Jam”
Written by Andrew Whaley
Nurse Mildred theme song
Nurse Mildred: Hello. Welcome to “The Nurse Mildred show,” brought to you by the Ministry of Health. I’m Nurse Mildred.
Presenter: And, I’m {NAME OF PRESENTER}. So, welcome back, Nurse Mildred. For the past weeks, we’ve been talking about family planning and listening to our listener’s many questions.
Nurse Mildred: Yes. It has been wonderful.
Presenter: It has. So, Nurse Mildred, you are so passionate about family planning. Were you always that way?
Nurse Mildred: I love the work I do in helping women – and men – plan a family…bringing a baby safely into this world. I get a lot of satisfaction from that. But for me, family planning became something of a calling. It was very personal to me.
Presenter: Really? Why?
Nurse Mildred: Well, I always wanted to be a nurse, ever since I was a child. But it wasn’t until something happened to my family which changed everything and made me really think about families and how we bring children into this world.
Presenter: I am intrigued. What happened to change everything for you?
Nurse Mildred: I was 13 years old at the time and my mother was having her 7th child. We lived in the village, miles from the nearest clinic… My parents kept a beautiful vegetable garden. I loved gardening. And that day I was digging in the garden…
SFX: FADE OUT AND UNDER TRANSITION MUSIC THAT SOUNDS LIKE FLASH BACK MUSIC
SCENE I
LOCATION: EXT-GARDEN, MILDRED’S PARENTS HOME-MORNING
B/G SFX: BIRDS TWEETING
CHARACTERS: MILDRED, MARTHA
SFX: SOUNDS OF MILDRED DIGGING IN THE GARDEN
MILDRED: (MILDRED, AGED 13, ON MIC, SINGING A SONG HAPPILY AS SHE DIGS THE GARDEN)
SFX: SIGNATURE MUSIC UP AND FADES OUT
MARTHA: (OFF MIC, MILDRED’S SISTER, 16, APPROACHES THE GARDEN ENCLAVE AT A RUN. SHE IS HIGHLY AGITATED. FROM AFAR) Mildred! Mildred! …Mildred!
MILDRED: (ONLY HEARING AS SHE GETS CLOSER, SHE STOPS DIGGING NOW AND LOOKS UP OVER THE FENCE, CALLING, STILL NOT PERTURBED) Martha? What’s up? Is Ronnie chasing you?
MARTHA: (ARRIVING, PANTING) It’s mother… mother…
MILDRED: Huh? Chasing you…
MARTHA: (GROWING PANIC IN HER VOICE) Mother… she’s having a baby.
MILDRED: What?
MARTHA: Yes. The baby is coming. It’s coming.
MILDRED: But now…? Are you sure?
MARTHA: (MORE PANICKED) It’s coming. You must come, now.
MILDRED: The baby is not due for another 3 weeks…is it?
MARTHA: Please…stop questions. Come.
MILDRED: (PUTTING DOWN HER TOOLS AND MOVING) Where is Ronnie? Has he called Susan the midwife?
MARTHA: He went. She is not home.
MILDRED: But she is coming…?
MARTHA: (CROSS NOW) She is not coming, Mildred! She went to town or something…
MILDRED: But why did the midwife go to town when she knows that mother could have a baby any week…?
MARTHA: How would I know? But she is not there and she is not coming.
MILDRED: And the birth attendant, Jackie?
MARTHA: Ronnie called her, but I don’t think she knows what to do.
MILDRED: What do you mean she doesn’t know what to do?
MARTHA: (SHOUTING AT MILDRED IN FRUSTRATION) I don’t know, Mildred, I don’t know. Mummy is in a lot of pain.
SFX: MILDRED SWINGS OPEN THE GATE TO THE GARDEN. IT SQUEAKS. SHE MAKES SURE SHE SHUTS IT.
MILDRED: Surely Jackie knows what to do…
MARTHA: (IMPATIENT) I don’t know if she knows. Stop asking questions neither of us have answers for!
MILDRED: But why call me? I am not a birth attendant.
MARTHA: Mummy was telling me: call Mildred, call Mildred…
MILDRED: I am 13, Martha! Can’t others help?
MARTHA: Let’s run. Please. We don’t have time for arguments…
MILDRED: I am coming.
THEY BOTH RUN.
SFX: MUSIC TRANSITION UP AND FADES OFF
SCENE II
LOCATION: INT- MILDRED’S PARENTS HOME-MORNING
B/G SFX: CHICKENS AND COWS OUTSIDE
CHARACTERS: MILDRED, MARTHA, JACKIE, MILDRED’S MUM
SFX: THE HUT DOOR SQUEAKS OPEN AS THE 2 GIRLS ARRIVE, SLIGHTLY OUT OF BREATH.
MOTHER: GROANS IN EXCUCIATING PAIN
JACKIE: I am going to find someone…
MARTHA: (APPROACHING MAT) Mother…
JACKIE: She has lost blood.
MARTHA: (LOSING IT) Do something! Do something, Jackie!
JACKIE: (KNOWING SHE HAS LOST CONTROL) I am trying! I am trying!
MOTHER: LETTING OUT A CRY OF WOE
MILDRED: (APPROACHING MIC, LEANING IN ANXIOUSLY TO HER SUFFERING MOTHER, WORRIED NOW) Mother!
MOTHER’S BREATHING GETS MORE INTENSE AND RAPID AND THEN SEEMS TO GET FAINT
MARTHA: Can’t you do something! Something?!
JACKIE: (BARKING) Bring me that towel! (SHE DELIVERS A BABY, LIFELESS)
MILDRED: Oh my God!
BUT IT IS TOO LATE.
JACKIE: (DEFEATED) There is nothing I can do. The baby…it hasn’t survived
MOTHER: (WEAK) Bring me my baby… Mildred
MILDRED: (LEANING CLOSE TO HER MUM) It was too late, mother…
MOTHER: (VERY WEAK) You sure…
MILDRED: We couldn’t save the baby, mother…
MARTHA: (OFF MIC) I can’t believe… (SHE STARTS SOBBING)
JACKIE: (MATTER OF FACT) The cord was around its neck. I couldn’t save it… I am sorry. Let us get you cleaned up…
MOTHER: (VERY WEAK, DISORIENTED, HEAD SWIRLING – MOANS) I don’t feel right… Mildred…what happened, my daughter.
MILDRED: (GENTLE, SAD) Your baby…our brother…he didn’t make it.
MOTHER: A boy…?
MILDRED: (PAUSE) Yes.
MARTHA: (OFF MIC, ACCUSING) Where was Susan? Why wasn’t there a midwife here for my mother?
JACKIE: Your mother wasn’t due for another 3 weeks or a month.
MARTHA: She should have known though. She was following the pregnancy. She should have known it could be any time.
JACKIE: (UPSET SHE IS BEING TARGETED) I don’t know why. I was just called this morning…an hour ago. You can’t blame me.
MARTHA: You are the expert!
JACKIE: I am not the midwife!
MILDRED: (INTERVENING) Please. We can’t have this argument here. Not now! Not here in front of my mother…
MOTHER: (VERY WEAK, AN ATTEMPT AT A CRY FOR HELP, HER VOICE FAINT AND RASPY) Help me…
MILDRED: (TURNING TO HER MOTHER) Mother? (TRYING TO ROUSE HER) Mother! She is not breathing….
MOTHER NOW BREATHES RAPIDLY
MILDRED: She is bleeding badly… help me here…!
SFX: FUNERAL MUSIC TRANSITION UP AND FADES OFF
Nurse Mildred: (NARRATING) I can’t forget that day. That day I lost a baby brother…And my mother…
Presenter: That is terrible.
Nurse Mildred: It changed my life. Or rather, it was the start of the change. Life without our mother was no joke. She did everything for us, and now she was gone, leaving 7 children all under the age of 16 –It was hard for all of us. And, for my father? Well, he never really recovered after my mother died.
SCENE III
LOCATION: INT- MILDRED’S PARENTS HOME, KITCHEN-DAY
B/G SFX: POT COOKING ON THE STOVE
CHARACTERS: MILDRED, MILDRED’S DAD
THE MOOD IS DEFINITELY HAPPIER AFTER THE SAD FUNERAL MUSIC. THIS IS 5 YEARS ON.
SFX: FATHER OPENS THE DOOR
FATHER: (BANGING HIS FEET ON THE MAT) Ah, good. I can smell good food from the other end of the compound. Smells very good, Mildred!
MILDRED: I used the peanut sauce on chicken, father.
FATHER: (TAKING SHOES OFF) Just like your mother used to do.
MILDRED: I hope you like it. (SHE STIRS A POT AND PUTS THE LID BACK ON)
FATHER: (UPBEAT) I have no doubt I shall. (SIGHS) Ah, let me sit…
MILDRED: Sit, father, sit.
FATHER: (SITTING DOWN) The walk from the trading centre felt very long today.
MILDRED: It’s the heat. Well, it is humid, father.
FATHER: That is for certain. (HAPPY TO GIVE GOOD NEWS) I sold all the milled grain. All of it. I think that is what exhausted me…pushing that wheelbarrow all the way to the trading centre. I had to pay off the owner first…huh…
MILDRED: Anyway, you are here, father.
FATHER: I am here, Mildred. And with news.
MILDRED: News?
FATHER: Guess who I bumped into at the mill? Just guess.
MILDRED: You always play these games with me, father. It could be any one of a hundred people. How do I know?
FATHER: I met the headmaster!
MILDRED: The headmaster?
FATHER: He was very eager to talk to me.
MILDRED: Oh my goodness, are the exam results out?
FATHER: I have them here (HE PULLS THEM OUT OF A POCKET) they have been burning a hole in my shirt pocket every step of the three miles from the trading centre. I was dying to peep.
MILDRED: Oh no, I have failed!
FATHER: We don’t know that yet! Shall we look?
MILDRED: (HER HEART IN HER MOUTH) I don’t know. Don’t show the others…
FATHER: Of course not. These are yours. For you alone to witness. Shall we…?
SFX: HE TEARS THE ENVELOPE
MILDRED: I am doomed…
FATHER: Why think the worst? (OPENING IT, BUILDING THE TENSION) well, look, Mildred my daughter, it is better to first think about the worst and then get good news than to first think about the best and get disappointed.
MILDRED: Father, don’t! What does it say?
FATHER: I haven’t got there yet. (READING) A Level Biology, Physics, Chemistry…
MILDRED: The suspense is killing me.
FATHER: Biology – B
MILDRED: (OVER THE MOON) B!???
FATHER: Physics – D
MILDRED: That’s not good!
FATHER: It’s a reasonable pass, my dear!
MILDRED: What about Chemistry?
FATHER: Chemistry is a C. My dear, it’s good. Biology is very good. Very good.
MILDRED: Is it? It’s a pass.
FATHER: It is. And you can do things with good A Levels like this.
MILDRED: (SUDDENLY EXCITED, SKIPPING) Yes, yes! I passed! Yay! (SHE ULULATES)
FATHER: (NOT JOINING IN) What am I going to do without you?
MILDRED: (STOPS SKIPPING AND CELEBRATING) Why? Don’t worry, father, I won’t be going anywhere…
FATHER: You most certainly will. What was the purpose of exams? Of studying as hard as you did? What was the point of you dreaming about going to nursing school? I will bet there was not another student at the school who did as well as you! The headmaster even said you were among the best in the school – a rural school, my dear Mildred!
MILDRED: But I can’t go anywhere, father.
FATHER: What are you talking about?
MILDRED: I was just dreaming, father.
FATHER: You will easily qualify for nursing school!
MILDRED: I haven’t even applied yet. And maybe they won’t want me.
FATHER: Which nursing college would not want my brilliant daughter?
MILDRED: I am hardly brilliant, father. They are average marks.
FATHER: Averagely good marks!! Even the headmaster said your results were good enough to go into nursing…!
MILDRED: So you did know my marks – before you got home! You read my results.
FATHER: Yes, I confess. I did. But only because the headmaster was so happy. In fact he called out to me and rushed over and said: Did I know that I was hiding a genius in the family?
MILDRED: Exaggerating!
FATHER: That is what he said. And I said, well any genius in the family must come from her mother’s side, I said. Because I was absolutely hopelessly below average at school.
MILDRED: Nonsense, father, you read anything you can lay your hands on.
FATHER: My dear, I read newspapers that are a week old. Stale news! (NOW, TO HIS DAUGHTER, AS IF HIS LIFE DEPENDED ON IT) This is a priceless opportunity for you to achieve your dreams, Mildred. You can go to nursing college in the city…
MILDRED: Who will look after you?
FATHER: (SCOFFS) I am big enough and ugly enough to take care of myself… Seriously, Mildred, you have what it takes. And I have always said to each of my children, girls as well as boys, that each of you must stand on your own 2 feet. Financial independence is the greatest thing you can achieve in life.
MILDRED: I don’t know if I have what it takes.
FATHER: Mildred – if you don’t do it for me, at least do it for your mother. Honestly, we could see, by the time your mother became pregnant for the 7th time, that she was tired; she’d had enough, and we should have stopped… and I would say to her: let this be the last child then. I didn’t know then it would be the last. Honestly, Mildred, your mother and I could see that it was going to get harder and harder to educate all of you to stand on your own 2 feet – and now you have the chance. Right here, with your A Level results – you’ve earned the chance.
MILDRED: I shall try.
FATHER: Go to nursing school and be a success! That is all any parent could ask of a child.
SFX: MUSICAL BRIDGE TO NARRATION
Nurse Mildred: And so I did go to nursing school. As any parent would have wanted of a child… as indeed I wanted.
Presenter: And you never looked back.
Nurse Mildred: In a way, I did look back. Looking back spurred me on. I looked at my mother’s death at childbirth, and the more I thought about it, the more I felt it could have been prevented – if only my mother had got adequate help at a proper health facility. She would have been around for my father – and for us, her children.
Presenter: I see. So your mother’s death in a sense made you think about childbirth
Nurse Mildred: Indeed. And at nursing school, I became fascinated with birth, with delivery, with finding ways of bringing healthy children into the world.
Presenter: How did that link to family planning as such? It’s one thing to bring children into the world, but who is to say men and women should plan how and when they have children?