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Someone provided me with a dressing gown and someone else with two pairs of heavy "respectable" pyjamas so that I did not need to sleep in my dress. I do not know the donors. I was also given several dresses by unknown angels. More ministering angels gave me vitamin tablets and a doctor offered me nicotine acid injections. An old acquaintance of Chefoo-Andrews by name-recognized me and told me that Ned Adams, an old college acquaintance, was also on board. They volunteered to look after the baby for me while I had my meals. Ned looked after him while I had breakfast and Andrews while I had lunch, and what a boon it was! Then there was Jane. I doubt if she would admit the wings, but if ever there were a friend, she was one. She asked what size shoe I wore and I said quadruple A. Imagine getting quadruple A in mid-ocean! She presented me with four pairs. I used to have to send to the States or Manila for my size. I had shoes with me, but they all needed repair except one pair of Red Cross shoes which I was hoarding for landing. There were cobblers in Stanley, but no material. We made sandals from gunny sacks and rice bags. Before we left the ship in Lourenco Marques, Jane gave me a suitcase full of things from herself and daughter-good things that she herself could use. There were ribbons, mending material, bits of material to be made up, clothing both for myself and Celene. How I have blessed her time and again-a ministering angel. If you accept "cast-offs," you do the donor a favour by salving his conscience from the charge of waste, but when you accept gifts which mean sacrifice, then you accept an obligation to repay at an indefinite future, someone else in similar circumstances. There was no need for utter strangers to be so kind. I myself had been unused to it, so that I was completely overwhelmed.
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