English Penny by Na-mara. Here is a song dedicated to Nurse Penny Feiwel (neé Phelps) By Na-mara. She served at, amongst other hospitals, Tarancon (where the Scots went over the Jarama weekend last month. she might have treated Allan Craig there), aswell as treating the mortally wounded George Nathan at the end of the Battle of Brunete in Escorial. Whilst at Quintanar, the Garibaldi Brigade base, whilst treating the troops for an outbreak of typhoid, she fell in love with Italian Roberto Vincenzi, the Garibaldi battalion commissar, and they married whilst in Spain. However, after she was wounded in the Great Retreats, she returned for trratment to the UK and later married the Doctor who treated her, Michael Feiwel, and they spent many happy years together. However, after the end of the Spanish Civil War they discovered that Roberto was interned in Gurs oncentration camp in France and she wrote to him explaining her marriage. Here is part of her tragic letter to him as published in Angela Jacksons British Women in the Spanish Civil War: I felt that living in Spain and living in England were two completely isolated experiences. During this period, Roberto, I had not forgotten you - far from it - but what I felt about the whole of my life in Spain I felt also about our relationship. I loved you in Spain - you stood for everything out there - you were part of it - you were a real fighter for the rights of mankind. I still do love you, Roberto, but in a different way... But in England, while I was ill, Spain seemed so remote - almost another world. And now there is something I want to tell you Roberto. While I was feeling like this, there was someone who helped me to get well again. Roberto replied: I thought that the wounds to your body caused by the fascist plane had taken your life... Penny, you have married - you have done the right thing! I do not reproach you for it at all... In my situation, how would I have been able to keep my promise? I find myself here surrounded by barbed wire, with no prospect of freeing myself, without knowing when we will leave here, and in the certainty that the bourgeoisie of whatever country we go to will make it difficult for us to find work, and besides, they will impose restrictions on our movements, seeing them as suspect. We are subject to imprisonment, persecution, unemployment, etc., because we will continue with our fight, even when we must conduct it secretly, the only thing that matters to us is to arrive at the moment when all humanity is liberated from capitalist oppression... In your letter you tell me not to feel bitterness towards your husband. What blame has he? How could I nuture mistrust for a man who would give you the happiness that I am unable to give you. He has given you his name, the pride of bearing it and bringing it honour. Be a worthy companion for him. Penny and Michael sent cigarettes to Roberto and tried to get him out. However, with the Fall of France in 1940, he disappeared, never to be seen again. I have included Robertos incredibly noble reply from a man who had lost the cause in what he believed in and the woman who he loved. He had lost everything, yet he wrote this incredible letter to her. It moves me greatly. Sadly, Penny destroyed the photo of Roberto that she had kept shortly before her death. But at least I had the pleasure of seeing it once and putting a face to Roberto. He was a good looking man. Listen to this song and please think of Penny, but especially of Roberto Vincenzi. The photos are of Penny taken at Quintanar with the Garibaldi battaion. The gentleman to the left in the front row of the staff of the hospital was a trainee Catalan doctor. He obviously had an eye for the ladies! youtu.be/5MJW9wP8FRg
Posted on: Fri, 07 Mar 2014 10:36:02 +0000
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