A Useful Hint

My grandmother was a farmer’s wife. As the senior woman on the farm she had many responsibilities.

I can remember one Saturday night the family being woken by hammering on the door. There had been an axe attack and a young woman had been carried over three miles on a bicycle to the farm house.

She had a gaping wound in her shoulder that was about four inches long.

The nearest hospital was twelve miles away. It would take well over two hours to drive in the nearest town because the rivers were swollen. Ouma, (Grandmother), took out her sewing box, sterilised some needles and used good honest cotton to sew the wound.

We all know there are about two and a half centimetres to the inch. If each stitch was about 3mm apart, how many stitches did Ouma have to sew to close the wound?

Some of our young eleven plus candidates will grow up to be surgeons, doctors and nurses. They too will be involved in sewing and saving lives. Please remind your child, on a weekly basis, that there are 2.5 cms in an inch. It may come in useful one day.