Lisa Wilkinson

Evelyn and the man that she falls in love with in the course of this story were real.

Well, that was Annie and Wally, and they had five children.

He was the local stationmaster.

And again, this spirited young woman became a parent early on because she always wanted to help her dad out.

And so she set out to learn Morse code so that she could be in the stationmaster's office when Wally was busy doing the many other things he had to do as the stationmaster, and she would take the Morse code messages.

So she was able to go to school and then after school, what sort of work did she get?

Well, she travelled down to Adelaide and trained as a nurse at Adelaide Hospital and she absolutely loved it and was loved by all of the patients.

And it was while she was there nursing that an older patient, quite wealthy, needed to travel to London.

And Evelyn has always dreamt of elsewhere.

So she decided maybe this was her chance to finally see elsewhere.

So she takes that spot as a companion nurse to this wealthy woman and arrives in London and realises just how incredible elsewhere is

Everything that she's read in books, she's seeing laid out before her.

And so she signs up to be a nurse stewardess on these new cruise ships that are now travelling the world.

And she's experiencing other cultures.

She's meeting people that she never would have met.

From just about everywhere.

New York was one of her favourite places, but Morocco, you know, everywhere these cruise ships were travelling to, she was constantly sending postcards back because she was single, no children of her own, but she had a number of nieces and nephews.

and she was constantly writing back to Wally and Annie and her nieces and nephews, and often, when she could afford it, sending gifts back as well.

Well, as she was travelling around the world, you know, she was a very committed nurse and loved by all of the other crew.

And she started working with a doctor, a ship's doctor, a very handsome ship's doctor by the name of Dr William Abel James.