The Sea Nurses Quotes

“Hearing a sound, she straightened up and glanced behind her. She was sure she'd heard a voice, and it had sounded familiar. Her skin began to tingle with sensation. There was no one there. Strange. Maybe it was her mind playing tricks, but this had happened to her before when she was crossing the Atlantic. Feeling the reassuring weight of the ruby necklace against her skin she gripped the rail to ground herself. Drawing in another deep breath of sea air to steady the full beat of her heart, she remembered what Francine often said about being surrounded by those who had passed and learning to live with them”
― Kate Eastham, The Sea Nurses

“It was almost November and the leaves were starting to fall - before the war, she'd loved the autumn colours, going for a walk with a nip in the air. But now it meant that the soldiers would be covered in mud, suffering frostbite, more at risk of developing horrible infection, all of it adding to their misery. As the leaves drifted down, it made her feel sad, mournful, the seasons were still turning and the menace of war seemed unstoppable”
― Kate Eastham, The Sea Nurses

“At moments like these, Iris felt overwhelmed by grief and frustration. How could it be right to keep throwing young men's lives away? The war was like an insatiable monster that they were all servicing - it seemed grotesque”
― Kate Eastham, The Sea Nurses

“She'd known this pain before, as a child when her daddy died, and then it had come in a different form when she lost her mammy to cancer. But that didn't mean she understood it, or that she was any better equipped to deal with the savagery of it. On the contrary, as she lay there groaning with a visceral pain, feeling scoured out inside, it seemed to get worse and worse each time”
― Kate Eastham, The Sea Nurses

“As she watched Sam stride away down the deck, it felt as if something had shifted beneath her feet. All the crew and passengers waking up this morning would be entering a new world. iris pressed a hand to her chest and glanced down to check that her apron was straight. 'All we can do is soldier on,' she said out loud, weighing the coffee cup in her hand before she started to walk briskly along the deck, already forming in her head the exact words that she would use to tell Roisin about the declaration of war”
― Kate Eastham, The Sea Nurses

“Infuriatingly, she had never been attracted to any other man so strongly before. Their instant connection vibrated between them like a plucked string”
― Kate Eastham, The Sea Nurses

“A nurse ran towards the deserted dining room, her feet skidding on the wooden deck as the sip continued to tilt into the sea. An untethered wheelchair hurtled towards her; she leapt out of the way, grabbing hold of a deck bench to stop herself from falling. The ship heaved and slanted even further. Panting, she reached up with one hand to rip off her starched cap which had slipped forward, obscuring her vision. She felt something shift beneath her and somewhere, deep inside the vessel came a loud crack that sounded like an explosion. The hospital ship was breaking apart.”
― Kate Eastham, The Sea Nurses