Page 2 of A Found Family at the Cornish Country Hospital

‘You’re right Jan, it must have been at least a decade, but it’s great to see you.’ Joy had obviously decided not to mention the reason why she was standing by her son’s headstone, as she hugged her old friend. ‘The bell ringing must be great fun and nothing beats being close to your grandchildren.’

‘Well, I’d have been able to tell this was one of yours, even if you weren’t together.’ Jan stepped back and gestured towards Isla. ‘She’s exactly like you, back when we first met. The boys were at primary school then, weren’t they?’

‘They must have been.’ Joy suddenly looked uncomfortable, and Isla wasn’t sure whether it was because Jan didn’t seem to have any idea that she’d lost her son, or because of her friend’s insistence that there was an obvious genetic connection between Isla and her grandmother. It wasn’t the first time someone had said it, and Isla had always put it down to the fact that her parents had shared similar colouring, which mirrored Joy’s and her own. All of them had the sort of olive skin that tanned easily, dark hair and brown eyes. Isla would undoubtedly have picked up on some of Joy’s mannerisms over the years, too, given how much time they’d spent together.

‘No one can give me a greater compliment than telling me I’m like Nan.’ Isla leant into her grandmother, an unspoken understanding passing between them. There was no genetic link between Isla and her grandparents, but she couldn’t possiblyhave loved Joy or Bill any more than she did, and she knew without a doubt they felt the same way about her.

Glancing at her watch again, Isla gave Joy a gentle nudge. ‘I think we’d better make a move soon if we don’t want to be late for the party.’

‘Oh yes.’ Joy straightened up. ‘Sorry Jan, I’ve got to dash off, we’ve got a family birthday party to get to. But do enjoy your bell ringing.’

‘I will and maybe we can catch up for a cuppa now I’m back in the village?’

‘That would be lovely.’ If Isla hadn’t known Joy so well, she’d have been fooled by her words, because to anyone else they’d have sounded completely genuine. But there was just the tiniest hint, a flicker in her eyes, which made Isla suspect that her grandmother had absolutely no intention of meeting up with Jan. And she was right.

‘Her son was Nicky’s best friend at primary school, and he must have told her about him dying when it happened.’ Joy grumbled the words under her breath as they headed down the path towards the church gate. ‘She didn’t even care enough to remember it, and I’d rather spend an afternoon scraping seagull poo off every beach hut in Port Kara than meet up with her. She can stick her cuppa up her ar?—’

‘We don’t need someone like her to remember Nicky,’ Bill cut his wife off, taking hold of her hand as they reached the gate. ‘All the important people will never forget him, and we don’t want anything to spoil the celebration.’

‘Nothing can spoil it when I’m spending it with all my favourite people.’ Joy looked from Bill to Isla, before pushing open the gate. ‘And that cheese and pineapple hedgehog isn’t going to eat itself.’

A warm glow of contentment enveloped Isla for the second time that day. The people she loved most in the world were theperfect example that ‘family’ was something no one could create a single definition for. Her parents had been given a gift that could never be repaid, and the least she could do was to help another couple create the family they were dreaming of too by becoming an egg donor. She just had to wait for the right time to break the news to her own family, and hope they saw it the same way.

2

Aidan had been an A&E nurse for more than fifteen years, but there were still some days that could take him by surprise. The team at St Piran’s had an ongoing contest to share their most weird and wonderful encounters with patients, and he was almost certain he was going to be able to top the list after the morning he’d just had.

‘God, I need a coffee.’ He let out a long sigh as he reached the desk where two of his colleagues, Danni and Esther, were reviewing the test results of one of their patients.

‘What’s up?’ Danni was an A&E doctor, who’d also become a good friend over the eighteen months they’d worked together at the hospital.

‘I’ve just had a life and death case; I honestly wasn’t sure if she was going to make it.’ Aidan looked at Danni, and then turned to Esther, another of the nurses in the team, who he also counted as a close friend. Life in A&E could be tough, but it built enduring friendships, and he felt lucky to be surrounded by some of his favourite people every day at work. ‘It was seriously touch and go.’

‘What was it? Her heart?’ Esther’s eyes were round with concern, but Aidan couldn’t keep a straight face for any longer.

‘Hiccups.’ He rolled his eyes so hard he was in danger of detaching his retinas. ‘She’d had them for over two hours before coming in apparently. I mean, can you imagine suffering in silence for that long, before getting yourself to hospital? I told her she should have called an ambulance, because she wouldn’t want to end up being triaged behind someone with a broken neck.’

‘You didn’t!’ Danni laughed, but he was already nodding.

‘She made her boyfriend drive her in, too. Poor sod had been on a twelve-hour night shift and then had to come and sit in here with his drama queen of a girlfriend. I told him to blink three times if he was being held hostage.’

‘I’m not even going to ask if you did that, because I already know that you did.’ Esther grinned. ‘The only question was whether or not he blinked?’

‘No, but I’m certain he wanted to.’ Aidan looked at his watch. ‘Only an hour into the shift and I’ve got a contender for stupidest reason ever to visit A&E.’

‘I’m not sure anyone will ever beat paper-cut guy.’ Danni raised her eyebrows.

‘Paper cuts can be very painful.’ Aidan shrugged. ‘And it was on his scrotum.’

‘We officially have the weirdest jobs in the world. And I can’t help feeling a bit hard done by that my mum and dad are on a cruise, now that his active treatment is over, and they didn’t even think to invite me and give me a break from all this madness.’ Esther shook her head, but she was smiling the way she always did when she mentioned her parents lately. Her father’s cancer diagnosis had set them on a rocky path, but everything seemed to be looking up now. ‘So the very least I think we all deserve, isa decent cup of coffee. I’ll go and get us one while it’s so… Let’s just say, while there’s time.’

It was an unwritten rule, which every member of the team followed, not to mention when a shift was quiet. It was such a rare occurrence in the emergency department, that it seemed only right to have a proper cup of coffee from the Friends of St Piran’s Hospital shop, instead of one of the grey, tasteless ones from the vending machine.

‘You’re a star.’ Aidan planted a kiss on top of Esther’s head. ‘Don’t forget, I’m on the skinny lattes.’

‘Still?’ Esther looked surprised, but as much as he could have killed for a mochaccino, he still had four pounds to lose before he hit the target he’d set with his husband.

‘Jase has already lost the stone he wanted to lose, but I’ve got a bit more to go and he’s insistent we need to be in peak physical condition when we have the baby.’

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