Hilda's Wedding

Jolley, Elizabeth

Primary Category: Literature / Fiction

Genre: Short Story

Annotated by:
Coulehan, Jack
  • Date of entry: Jan-27-2000

Summary

This story takes place late at night in the quiet wards of a hospital. Some of the staff are kidding around about Night Sister Bean, who is supposedly a witch, but is now off-duty because she had an operation. Hilda from Housekeeping is pregnant again.

Since Hilda is unmarried, some of her co-workers come up with the idea of giving her a proper wedding. The Casualty Porter volunteers to be the groom. They just manage to complete the fanciful night wedding when Hilda goes into labor. Her baby is born in an elevator on the way to the maternity ward.

Commentary

This is a hilarious story about night shift in an English or Australian hospital. No one in this story takes himself or herself very seriously (except perhaps Night Sister Bean), and they all appear to get along with one another. How strange for a hospital!

Primary Source

Fellow Passengers. Collected Stories

Publisher

Penguin

Place Published

Melbourne, Australia

Edition

1997

Editor

Barbara Milech

Page Count

10