Sue Barton Part III

Sue and BIll get married when she is 25 a year or so after the hurricane. He takes over the new hospital and Sue becomes the superintendent of nurses there. She and Bill work together for 3 years and go through a bad patch in their marriage. Marianna starts to train as a nurse but gives up because she dislikes being under authority, and she runs away to travel around the country. Sue is desperately worried and feels that Bill is not sympathetic. Marianna returns to Springdale after several months away, having injured her foot and realising that New Hampshire country life is not so bad, and that living rough and travelling around is a dangerous and difficult life. Ira Prouty who works at the hospital, has helped her when she returned and wanted to stay in hiding, but she now goes to Sue's house to be nursed. She tells Sue after a few weeks that she is going to marry Ira, he is a good kind man and loves her and she thinks now she will be happy as a farmer's wife. Sue is startled but realises that Marianna has perhaps grown up now and is willing to settle down and that Ira, who is solid and steady, will be a good husband for her. She decides to try and talk to Bill about their marital problems, and when they talk they realise that they still love each other and their marriage is not on the rocks. After her first class of nurses graduate, some 3 years after the wedding, Sue tells Bill she is going to resign, as she's pregnant. She always wanted a career in nursing but wanted to balance it with having children.. and she beleived that a mother was necessary for children, when they were small which was commonly believed in the 1940s when Boylston was writing and set her books. THe next novel in the series is more about Sue as mother than a nurse. it is some years after her leaiving the hospital and having a baby, and she now has a daughter of 6, Tabitha and twin sons, Johnny and Jerry. She and BIll have Veazie living with them as housekeeper and friend and Sue soemtimes covers for the visiting nurse... Sue finds that her son Jerry has musical talent and she also tries to help Caroline, a new neighbour who is the daughter of a famous but distant artist. She then has another baby, Susie, and a few months after her baby is born, Bill gets ill with TB. At the time the main cure was rest and Bill has to go to a sanitorium, to recover. Sue decides that it might be a good idea to get a job while he's sick, to earn money and keep her mind occupied. She goes back to Bills hospital where Kit is now the Superindendent of nurses and gets a job as a staff nurse. She works wth a middle aged woman called Pat, who used to be out of nursing for some years, raising a family and is now back at it. Boylston loved her nursing work and never married, adn she understood that married women often needed and wanted to work so she supported it. Sue loves being back at full time nursing, and helps some of the younger nurses with problems. HOwever when Bill recovers and comes home, she decides to give it up and return to being a housewife till the children are older.