![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() The origin of Nightingale’s iron streak is difficult to pinpoint, born more out of opposition to her upbringing than evolving therefrom. Frustration with herself, with her family, with her allies, with her enemies, with bureaucracy, with women generally and high born women particularly, with Prime Ministers and Viceroys – nobody was ever quite up to scratch in Florence Nightingale’s precise yet merciless estimation, and anything short of total victory had to be reckoned as abject failure. In fact, no emotion winds its way through the tale of Nightingale’s life with anything like the same evil persistence as Frustration. By then arguably the most famous woman in England next to Queen Victoria herself, she could have enjoyed a life of ease and acclaim, but opted instead to drive herself, and those around her, at a health-ruining pace to compile statistics, gather reports, and write up plans of action in a grand and constantly frustrated attempt to remake the laws for how humans treat their sick. Though we think of her as the Lady With the Lamp, tirelessly patrolling the sick wards of the Crimean War offering solace and healing to soldiers who had been essentially left to die, Florence Nightingale’s greatest contributions came from a period in her life when illness prevented her from leaving the four walls of her modest living space. ![]()
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