Backstage nurse

by Jane Rossiter

Red-haired Shirley Grant, a nurse at Boston's Eastern Memorial Hospital, would never have been engaged as Oliver Craft's nurse had it not been for her two years' experience as an actress. Craft, one of the "greats" of the American theater, now dying of cancer, was determined to complete his tour in the starring role of The Cardinal, and the grand old man needed a nurse to tour with him. It was Oliver Craft who introduced Shirley to doctor-turned-actor Hugh Deering, who had left the medical profession under a cloud. Hugh, good company, a fine actor, and, presumably, an even finer doctor, represented a challenge to Shirley. From her own experience, she could not understand a doctor leaving his profession, for whatever cause, for the stage. Then wealthy, young Philadelphian Roger Craft, Oliver's grandson, met Shirley and fell in love with her. And Shirley, trying to keep the flame of life burning in her aging patient, found the answer to her own heart in another's need. An exciting nurse