The

The Welcome to another episode from 1001 classic short stories and tales.

This one titled The Lady with the Lamp by Elmer Adams and Morin Foster tells the story of Florence Nightingale.

The story first appears in a Brooklyn library periodical in 1909, and beyond that, little is known about the authors,

but they tell the story well, and her story deserves to be told.

Recently, one of my sons was transported to a hospital for immediate care

by a Nightingale helicopter, a very appropriate name for a service that saves lives every day around

the world. Florence Nightingale's story begins on May 12, 1820, in Florence, the city in which

she was born and from which her parents took her name.

She was raised by wealthy parents who traveled often but kept an estate at Lehurst, England, where she received an excellent education.

When she was growing up, she helped to take care of poor and sick people in her village, and by the age of 17, she was convinced that God wanted her to be a nurse.

She started visiting hospitals in England, finding that conditions there were terrible.

Doctors were doing surgeries without anesthetic, and many people who went to hospitals for any kind

of reason, were dying.

In 1850, she traveled to Egypt and was the guest of two

St. Vincent-Depal sisters, who showed her their hospital there. The conditions there were much

better managed than anything she had seen in England. Upon returning to England, and with the

support of her parents, she studied nursing, and then began to apply it in a London hospital. Her changes made a huge difference.

But change never comes without someone taking the arrows, as we'll see. I'd like to set the stage for you as we enter our story.

In 1854, Russia invaded Turkey, and the Crimean War

began, with Britain, France, and Turkey aligned against Russia. Sydney Herbert, the British War

Minister, asked Florence Nightingale to supervise a team of 38 nurses at the military hospital

...