Rachel and Daisy visits Oxford University Hospitals
Rachel Barbaresi with Daisy, Oxford Brookes student
Rachel and Daisy gave staff hand-printed cards to write or draw memories. The cards were connected with threads to create a web of stories.
‘So many lives are intertwined through the NHS – whether as patients or workers – in many different roles. Our web of stories brings together fragments of this shared history’
Rachel spoke to Jo who has worked in the linen department for 30 years
She said her first day was very difficult. She was in a room without windows. All of the other women were white and she felt very left out. She didn’t feel accepted and remembers being tearful when she got home that evening.
But in time she found her niche and her colleagues recognised her great skills as a seamstress. She had been sewing since she was 15, taught by her mother. She had been brought up in Birmingham where there was a big clothes making industry. She said “Now I use my skills.” And she described how she can manage more complicated tasks such as using an overlocker, stitching buttons etc.
