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MG 1 volume 2124 number 214

HALIFAX DISASTER RECORD OFFICE
Chronicle Building
Halifax, N.S.

PERSONAL NARRATIVE
Miss Jessie Parker, Wolfville


Miss Parker came from Wolfville on the afternoon of the 6th of December, accompanied by another nurse, Miss Miner, of Walbrook. They were put off the train at Rockingham, where there were motors to meet the Relief Workers. They were taken in motor to City Hall. Both were sent to Columbus Hall, which had been put at the service of the Relief people. There were fifty refugees in the building, some were injured, but except for some bad burns, not very badly. From almost the first it was a shelter for homeless families. Even on the sixth there were very few there who had any missing from their families, although they had lost all their belongings. Miss Parker sent for a doctor to help dress the burns and slight injuries, and when he came they got the [woun] wounds "fixed up." Then they made up beds for the refugees with mattresses from the "NIOBE" and blankets from the military. There was no stove in the building so they got a three-burner oil stove, and on that they did what cooking was done and heated water for bathing the children which they did in wash bubs. Later [the] they had bathrooms installed, and hot water. Miss Parker and Miss Miner did everything, cooking, washing dishes, dressing injuries and anything that there was to be done until they felt that it was no longer charity, and then they asked for a cook and two [assis] assistants. After the first few days some of the women who were sheltered helped a bit, but at first they were too dazed and [c] frightened to do anything. Everything happened so quickly and