Alpha Care At Rivermede

By Hazel Williams

At the age of twenty-five, Bethany Williams finds herself the sole owner of her parents’ property after their tragic accident in Spain. Instilled with the Lord’s calling and good will, Beth, along with her husband, decides to extend their vision of humanitarian work and open a health centre and a care home for the people of the area.

Surrounded by love and friendship, Beth’s vision of a support system prospers under her watchful gaze and compassion, creating new and lasting friendships and reuniting loved ones under one banner.

Hazel Williams’s Alpha Care at Rivermede is the highly anticipated sequel to her 2015 work, The Alpha Home.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Austin Macauley
• Release date: Sep 28, 2018
• ISBN: 9780463920459

Hazel Williams

Hazel Williams began her nursing career in 1948 working in hospitals, schools and was even a Queen’s District Nursing Sister for many years. She has two children, three granddaughters and one grandson. Sadly, she was widowed in March 2017 after 59 years of marriage. She is active in Christian voluntary work and enjoys meeting and helping people of all ages.

Book preview

Chapter One

Making Plans

Bethany and Jeremy called the committee together who were advisers to the Alpha Home for a special meeting to put their plans to them. When they both had outlined their vision there was silence round the table.

‘Where is the money coming from?’ said the treasurer, the local bank manager.

‘The home is well on its feet John and paying its way as you know. The market garden is making money after all the alterations we have made for growing produce in the winter. The Care Home will pay for itself when filled with 20 beds, the flats I intend either to sell if the clients want total independence, or they can be rented out. I will let Jeremy talk about the Health Centre.’

‘We intend building and owning the centre as well as providing X-ray facilities, minor operation theatres, counselling and clinics for maternity, and any other things that are needed. I have been in touch with the Health Authority and apparently they will rent the building and staff it with their own NHS staff and of course the two of us, Nick and I, as doctors.’ He was so enthusiastic. ‘The land belongs to us; it is one of the fields Beth hung onto after selling the farm, it is situated on the edge of the village, fortunately, so that the gossips will not know who is seeing the doctor.’ General amusement around the table.

‘This calls for more drink, what will you have gentlemen, red or white wine or coffee?’ Beth called for the kitchen staff to take their orders.

‘You have really shaken us tonight, Miss Beth,’ said old Jacob the shepherd, ‘I wonder what your parents would make of you and these fancy schemes.’

‘If it helped the villagers, it would be well received, Jacob. Didn’t they always do a lot for the village giving food and advice whenever it was needed? Perhaps, if I had been a boy and could have taken over the farm it might have been different, but being in London and working with people who have nothing, not even a bed at night, makes me want to do what Jesus would have done, feed them and show loving concern, giving them the chance of a better life. We have some lovely stories people have told us as a result of visiting the home when they needed someone to understand how they felt.’

‘I think it is time to give our enterprises a name and I would suggest Rivermede Enterprises, unless you have better ideas. We could eventually sell our products under that name; pickles, Jam and other products, which will help to finance the homes. I am looking into the future, of course.’ Beth wondered how they were going to take all these changes; they lacked her vision sometimes! She was enthusiastic and rearing to go.

‘Well, if you think this is a good idea then we all agree, after all this is your outfit, Beth.’

‘You all have been so supportive, I would not do anything without your approval.’ She really meant that.

Beth closed the meeting by praying that the plans would be in accordance with the will of God, that He would oversee the next few months whilst the buildings were going up, to choose the people who should come to live and work in them.

Before he went home, the retired doctor who had been widowed for three years said, ‘Beth, could I be the first to buy one of the flats, please? I am tired of living on my own and trying to cook. I would like to be part of the community here, you might even find me a job in the market garden I love plants and growing things.’

‘Certainly doctor, you shall have the pick of the flats and the job you like most of all.’ It was a happy group of people going home that night.

Jeremy and Beth let out a sigh of relief when they went up to bed. ‘I reckon that went very well, Beth. I expected a lot more opposition, not that it would have made any difference, it is our money after all which is going to pay for these things, but it is good to have them on our side.’

‘I will just go and check if the children are covered up and come to bed.’ Their daughter was now five and a half and Jamie, who Beth had looked after since he was born, more or less was seven. The children told people they were brother and sister, and would like to believe they were, but Jamie’s parents were out in Africa teaching Agriculture and Nutrition to those who needed their skills. Hopefully, they would be back sometime during the next year at least for a holiday.

Jeremy had been presumptuous in saying ‘Nick and I’ being the doctors, he had not yet asked his old friend if he would join him. Nick had spent some time at the home recovering from stress caused by working in a busy London hospital some years before, and had fallen in love with Beth! It was a joke between them, because Beth was already engaged to Jeremy. He asked her to find him a wife just like herself and he would be happy. They had parted on good terms when he had left after six months; he had been a big help with the children from London who came for holidays. The truth was that he had to tear himself away, otherwise he would have been happy to stay permanently as their doctor.

The next thing was to contact him with this proposal and get him to come down to discuss the details, which he did the next day, fixing a weekend in two weeks’ time. The other pressing thing to do was to get Zachary Pembleton, the architect, from Swansea to come with the plans so that they could get moving ahead now.

In the surgery the next morning, the first patient was the post mistress, who miraculously knew everything that was happening in the village. ‘What’s this I hear about a new Health Centre in the village, doctor? Is it true?’

‘My goodness, how on earth have you heard about this so early in the morning, we only passed the plans last night.’ He was amazed.

‘Old Jacob comes in early for his paper every morning and he was at your meeting last night. It is true then? A lot of people will be delighted to hear of it, so many have to go into Swansea for any treatment or investigations they need. I am sure we will all be so pleased, he said that old Nick might be coming back too, that would be great. Everyone loved him when he was here before. He did not come to church but worked with the youth club and football practice, a great help he was. Well, doctor, I feel so much better now.’

‘What had you come for, Mrs Jones?’ he asked.

‘I can’t quite remember, you have made me better simply by talking. Oh! I think it was my indigestion. I am sick of buying anti-acid tablets, let’s see if yours are any better.’

‘I wish I could cure all my patients by talking to them.’ With a smile on his face, he said good day to her. He did not need the town crier to spread the news, she was better than any advertisement he thought of putting on the notice board in the village.

Later that day, Zachary came with the plans of the Health Centre. Beth, Jeremy and he spent two hours poring over them working out where they needed the special rooms for the X-ray machines and scanner they hoped to have, also the personnel they would need to man these machines. They might have to employ staff themselves if the money allowed by the NHS would not stretch to the latest equipment and operators. They were to cover a wide range of villages, also be the GP on call for the same people, maybe to have a room to use as a surgery in each village for people who found it hard to travel.

Nick was delighted to have the phone call from Jeremy and agreed readily to go down the following weekend. He asked if he could bring a friend, of course the answer was yes. ‘Was he bringing Sally Anne again?’

‘No,’ he replied, ‘she has gone off me, she did not want to be buried in the depth of Wales. But don’t tell Beth yet. I am bringing someone else.’

Chapter Two

Nick and Fiona

Saturdays were always special to Beth. Her two children took priority to her time and she spent the day, or most of it, being with them, sometimes going into Swansea to paddle in the sea, shopping and eating fish and chips in a paper on the beach. However, she was on this day expecting Nick and his friend coming again for the weekend. The children loved him and could not wait until he came.

‘We will go fishing in the river today,’ she said, ‘then we shall hear them come.’ They were so intent on fishing that they did not hear him come because he crept up on them unexpectedly throwing his arms around Beth from behind.

‘So how is the ex love of my life then, my darling Beth?’

‘She is all the better for seeing you. Oh Nick, you are looking so tired; are you working too hard in your consultancy, and find the bag of money you are earning too heavy to carry?’

‘Beth, you always say what you think, bless you. Yes. I do have a room in Harley St for private patients but it goes against what I really believe in, but I have to make money somehow. Anyway, I have brought a friend, do you remember me asking you to find me a wife who is just like you? Well, I have found her myself. Come on out, Fiona.’ Out from the bushes came one of Beth’s best friends from London. They hugged each other whilst the children hugged Nick, telling him how much they were looking forward to him coming to work there. ‘But where is Sally Anne, the lady you brought before when you came?’ they asked him.

‘Hang on a bit. I haven’t said I will come yet,’ he laughingly said to them. ‘Sally Anne went off me after we had been here before, she did not want to be buried in the depths of Wales even with me! She preferred the bright lights of London.’

‘I know you will come though,’ said Jamie, ‘will you play football with us like you did before, and come into the tree house for lunch?’

‘You have got a good memory, young Jamie. What about you, Elizabeth? You are looking like your mother, have you got a hug for me?’

‘Nick, you old, dark horse. Why did you not tell me you had found Fiona, my lovely friend,’ Beth was delighted.

‘I wanted to surprise you; she did a clinic for me at the hospital and reminded me of you, I could not believe I had found your double and so asked her out to dinner, I have brought her down to see if she would be happy here working and becoming my wife!’ he said.

‘Oh Nick, was that a proposal? I have never heard one like it; she is doing you a favour if she says yes.’ Beth pretended to be shocked.

‘Please don’t worry, Beth. I know him by now and strangely I love him in spite of him loving you. We are going to be married when he can get around to it.’ They were all laughing when Jeremy walked up to them.

‘Who is going to marry who? Don’t tell me you have civilised him and are thinking of spending the next fifty years looking after him. I am pleased indeed to meet you, Fiona, and hope you will come down here and be a big part of our development.’

‘Come on, let us go in. It is nearly dinnertime, the new boys have just arrived and I need to meet them. We have a good chap looking after them from London down here for three months; he understands them and is a youth leader in one of the churches, taking a break,’ Beth told them.

‘It sounds like some break to me,’ said Nick, ‘those kids can be hard work.’

‘Only if you let them be; we haven’t had any problems lately like stealing chocolate or falling into the river. We have had our share in days gone by, ey Nick?’

‘Come on. I hope Margaret has made my favourite meat and potato pie, with bread pudding to follow. Did she know I was coming, Beth?’

‘Yes, I made sure she knew. I remember how much you loved our food when you were here.’

The London boys were a bit subdued during the meal, although they all tried to make them feel welcome. After tea, Beth took them upstairs and told them about the few rules that had to be kept such as showering at night and washing in the mornings, wearing clean clothes and if they had not got any, she would supply them with some. When they were in bed, she usually told them a story before they went to sleep, but not on the first night. She also made sure they knew where to find her if they needed her in the night.

During this time, Jeremy was getting Fiona and Nick excited about his project in the village. After church the next day, they went to see the land, praying that God would bless it and them, as they sought to honour Him in their work there. They also saw the new houses the young enterprising builder was erecting nearby. A very nice four bed roomed house was almost completed, with landscaped gardens and a lovely view.

‘I think this has our name on it, Nick. It really is lovely; can we have it?’ Fiona had fallen in love with it already.

‘I guess I will have to have more Harley St patients to pay for it, Fiona,’ he jokingly said.

‘Beth, I never know when he is joking or telling the truth.’ Fiona was speaking honestly.

‘Come on, Nick, with all those millions you have staked away, you can afford six of these.’ Beth was playing the same game!

‘Yes, my darling Fiona, you shall have this house and fill those four bedrooms with children as soon as possible.’ With this they all laughed heartily. ‘And we had better start soon as the biological clock is ticking.’ This made them laugh even more. Jamie and Elizabeth could not understand why a clock ticking made these adults laugh.

‘What’s a biological clock, Mummy? Have we got one?’ This made them laugh even more.

‘Yes, darling, but you cannot see it. Maybe one day you will know all about it.’ Beth always tried to explain what they wanted to know but this was a bit too technical.

After dinner, they waved goodbye to Nick and Fiona as they started their journey back to London. The answer was a resounding yes, they would come. Could they be