Melda Harvey

"My grandmother’s youngest child, Melda, born in 1934 became ill with scarlet fever when she was two. She was hospitalised and the older sisters, my aunts, were sent after school or work each day and at the weekends to tae some of the pressure from my Grandmother's daily visits and to sit with her. One Saturday morning my grandmother felt she was well enough to be discharged and spoke with the doctor about it, to be told that Monday would be soon enough. It was a warm spring day and Melda's cot had been wheeled out onto the verandah. My grandmother left to come home later that afternoon and the hospital staff forgot to wheel in her little daughter, who caught a chill and died. My grandmother's faith in hospitals was severely shaken by this experience."
From Family HIstory of Daphne Harvey written by Janice Macdonald