E P I S O D E    G U I D E S   

Sonja, an illegitimate child, an outsider. In the words of her Grandmother 'a handful'. At seven years old the small freckled-faced child is plucked from the security of her Grandparent's home, and restored to her mother and a new stepfather. Her step-father's conservative politics later rival, and prove to be as firmly held as Sonja's socialist, Pacifist beliefs. 1941. By age seventeen, Sonja is already married and divorced. To her family she is still 'a handful'. Grandmother continues to be concerned about Sonja's impetuousness. Nonetheless she defends her grand-daughter against her parents similar concerns. Chided about the unhappiness she has caused her family Sonja assures her Grandmother that all will be well. She has found her vocation in nursing. She loves the work even though it is hard - much harder than the factory where she was previously placed by the wartime manpower department. And she's made lots of new friends. With wartime, Sonja farewells an old friend Charlie Davies, who is leaving for service in the middle East. In a carnival atmosphere that belies the purpose of the impending voyage, Sonja and Charlie, caught up in the fervour and romance of the situation agree to have 'an understanding' during their separation. On the Wards at Wellington Hospital the student nurses are overworked and ill prepared. But there is a war on and there is a shortage of staff. Early on the young women are dealing with physical and psychological conditions they hadn't even known existed as well as those exacerbated by the war. It is easy to become dispirited by the pain and misery around them. It is here while struggling with the less palatable aspects of nursing that Sonja becomes part of a community of women, though her outspoken opinions are often less than welcome and her pacifism regarded almost as treason. Sonja is posted to a hospital in a country town near a U.S. army camp. The bombing of Pearl Harbour has brought the war to the Pacific and thousands of GI's to base camps in New Zealand. At first, sceptical of the romantic mystique of these exotic and glamorous young men, Sonja falls deeply in love with Red, a young marine from Nebraska. Her star spangled affair is short lived when the inevitable happens and Red's unit embarks for an unknown Pacific destination. Sustained by plans for the future she turns to her work with vengeance, tries to repair her relationship with her family and guiltily arranges for another nurse to take over the correspondence with Charlie. As wartime Christmas celebrations come to a close, Sonja finds that she is pregnant.

Forced to hide her pregnancy in order to continue her training Sonja copes as best she can - her personal happiness at odds with her sure knowledge of society's disapproval. Outspoken and active where she perceives injustice or unfairness, Sonja frequently finds herself swimming against the tide of the times and in trouble. Her plan to set up a nurses union is shortlived, her attempts to befriend a hospitalised Japanese prisoner of war in the interests of common humanity results in a painful lesson about cultural assumptions. Further assumptions that her mother will understand her plight, having been an unmarried mother herself, are also shattered. Torn between the wishes of the husband who 'rescued' her from this same situation and the daughter she once produced out of wedlock, she unhappily abandons Sonja to her own arrangements. The birth of her daughter Penny in a country hospital under primitive wartime conditions provides Sonja's introduction to motherhood. But she is delighted with her red-headed daughter who looks so like her father. When Red's payments stop arriving a further element of worry creeps into her life, unable to be resolved, Sonja and Penny return to Wellington. Sonja's nervousness at returning is soon dispelled by the welcome she receives from her parents who are completely won over by their first grandchild. V.E. Day brings further happiness and Sonja makes plans to complete her nursing training and to set up a home in readiness for Red's return. Because she must work to support her child Sonja is worried when her routine medical examination reveals tuberculosis. Reassured by the hospital that a holiday in a warmer climate is all the treatment required, Sonja takes her baby with her to Hawkes Bay to rest but her condition deteriorates. The local doctor is astounded at her bad condition and orders her to hospital. He tells Sonja she will be isolated for at least two and a half years. With only one day to find term child care for her daughter, Sonja decides that she will prove the doctor wrong and recover is six months.

Drifting between reality and hallucination Sonja lies in solitary confinement in an isolated ward. Her fears for Penny and Red and her own rapidly deteriorating condition are increased by her knowledge of the killer disease she suffers from. Sonja is taken to Wellington to the TB Ward where at least she will be surrounded by friends. But Sonja hovers between life and death. News of Red's death in the Pacific War, takes her will to survive to its lowest ebb, but an overhead remark about her impending death rouses Sonja. She must live for Penny. Her contrary nature rises to the fore and she summons the strength to eat. Her old 'gang' of friends is breaking up - graduating, getting married and settling down to post-war domesticity. Reassuring her friends that Penny is happy and well cared for while begging her mother to take the child into the care of the family. Sonja is forced to consider the reality of a situation where there will be no father to help care for her daughter. Sonja's friend and returned soldier Charlie Davies is horrified by Sonja's circumstances, he undertakes to help her get well. Their relationship picks up where it left off with a comfortable personal and political compatibility and from Sonja's hospital bed they put the world to rights. Charlie has become engaged to Anne, his faithful correspondent, and Sonja is careful not to let her true reaction show. But as their relationship intensifies his engagement to Anne deteriorates and eventually political differences force its abandonment. When Sonja is ready to go into a Sanatorium it is Charlie who organises her move and arranges for her comfort. Discovering five former nurses in the Sanatorium and having heard that a close friend is diagnosed with turberculosis, Sonja leads a public campaign through the press to encourage the truth about, and an understanding of, this occupational disease. Once allowed home for Christmas Sonja and Charlie fight the hospital authorities to be allowed to marry. Reluctantly the medical authorities release their grip and Sonja becomes Sonja Davies. Before they retrieve Penny from her foster parents, Charlie assures Sonja that her daughter will not suffer the same misunderstanding that she experienced in her relationship with her own stepfather. Having found a true family at last Sonja, with her husband and daughter, moves to the warmer climate of Mairiri where the family plans to plant an orchard. Living in an army hut without any facilities, the life of a pioneer landholder is physically stressful but Sonja is also caught up in a political battle - that of extracting from the government of the day the financial assistance that was promised to all returned soldiers, and from the Health Department, the assistance available to TB patients. By the time the Davies family receive the aid that allows them decent accommodation, the struggle has caused Sonja to return to hospital, leaving Charlie and Penny to build the new house without her. Sonja's condition deteriorates rapidly. At her darkest hour Grandmother contacts Sonja, and assures her she will be alright. A Doctor tells she is going to die. When blood foams from her lungs Sonja knows she is at the last stage of this disease before death but she clings to her Grandmother's message. Charlie arrives at her bedside, angry that no one has notified him of Sonja's deterioration. As he sits with Sonja willing her not to die, a young doctor, just returned from the U.K appears at her bedhead. He tells Sonja and Charlie that a new drug has been found. "Spitting a bit blood" will have cleared out some of the dead tissue. Sonja can now expect to recover. She will be weak for some time. Life on the land is an impossibility. To gain the new life Sonja needs, the Davies family must move from the farm and the new house they have worked so hard for. Undaunted, Charlie and Sonja set up a landscape gardening business in the small provincial town of Nelson where they pick up the pieces and for the first time can seize the opportunity to lead a full life together.

Settled in the provincial city of Nelson where Charlie runs a thriving landscaping business, Sonja is making up for lost time. For the first time she has the opportunity to put her socialist ideals to practical use. A country undergoing a period of regeneration after seven years at war would appear to require the input of political idealists but the Labour Party is in Opposition and Sonja is bemused by the petty bureaucracy and infighting at grass-roots level. When the local community unites in an effort to prevent the Government from closing down their railway (and economic lifetime) Sonja joins the local women who are frustrated by the apparent inability of their political leaders to do anything, and they organise what was to become the first protest by women that the country had seen. To prevent the railway tracks being torn up the women, 'sat' on them and as the days passed faced up to locomotives, parties of railway officials, government officials and finally, the police. International news coverage and the arrest and subsequent court appearance of the 'ring-leaders' bought them the status of heroes but also attracted large scale disaproval in an era when women were not commonly public figures. However, Sonja makes many like-minded friends, feels the support of a community of women and, learns of the strength to be achieved by working together rather than tackling issues in a piecemeal fashion and alone as she has done all her life. Charlie, who has all but lost Sonja's help in the running of his business, supports her efforts and helps her to become as independent as possible although his ideology and his personal needs often clash. Penny learns what it is to have a mother in the (not always popular) public eye and she and Sonja comes into conflict over the perceived shortcomings and differences from 'other mothers'. Family relationships are stretched to the limit when Sonja becomes pregnant and then is nominated for a position on the Hospital Board. Charlie too has decided to dedicate his life to politics and accepts work as a union delegate. Penny is being sought for advanced training to develop her talents as a ballet dancer. As individuals the future looks bright for the Davies family but it takes a commitment to each other which is just as strong as their commitment to socialists politics to resolve their difficulties and to maintain their cherished family unit while pursuing individual goals and talents.