Little Volcanoes

This week my dad started work as a volunteer for a local hospice, driving day patients to and from their appointments. He joins my mum who works as a nurse in the same place, providing end of life care for the terminally ill. My mum has been a nurse her whole working career, and it was her I thought of when I listened to Cathy FitzGerald’s award-winning documentary, ‘Little Volcanoes.’

FitzGerald has been producing programmes for the BBC for a few years now. Her documentaries are disparate, showing no thematic thread, examining topics that range from reindeer racing to yellow cab drivers. Reading that she has a DPhil on the works of Dickens might explain her inquiring mind: the Victorian writer was as much anthropologist as novelist, showing an interest in every corner of life, documenting it in all its pain and glory. FitzGerald strikes me as being led by a similar desire to understand human behaviour. An earlier work ‘Skylarking’ exemplifies this. A meditation on the skies, it contains contributions from a prisoner and a paraglider. Where else do you hear those voices juxtaposed? It’s her originality that make her totally necessary, as she doesn’t choose well-trodden topics.

Cathy FitzGerald

Her work set in Pilgrims Hospice, Margate, is one of the finest pieces of radio I’ve heard. Its beauty moved me to tears. Over the course of the half an hour we hear from nurses, volunteers and patients. Zoe begins by reminding us that tenderness is the cornerstone of all nursing. She describes how at night she has to calm patients. ‘How?’ she’s asked. Sometimes it’s just by being with them, holding their hand. It makes you realise that as adults we’ve still got one foot in childhood. When something goes wrong we look for reassurance. We understandably regress to a younger state of fear and confusion. A handhold on a cliff face can be a life saver. It can pull someone from their nightmares, returning them to solid ground.

We meet other members of staff who speak about how validated they feel cooking and entertaining the patients. A cook shares how she received a thank you note for a meal she made. Hearing the pride in her voice was so touching. I imagine cooks aren’t paid great money in the care system, but she felt valued by the people she served. People who were having dignity stripped from them were bringing dignity to people whose work often goes unnoticed. Later, a volunteer brims with excitement, recalling a patient that found respite in their art sessions. It really shows the power of care: how bringing a little happiness to someone can make your work feel meaningful and worthwhile.

Interspersed throughout are the patients themselves. There’s Frank who was born poor, but through charm gained the patronage of the rich. Personally, he doesn’t care about death, but he cares about what it will do to his family. This is similar to Christine who in pre-empting death has written letters to the water and electric board, so as to save her children the grief. There’s Bill who has lost three wives: the first to adultery, the others to death. He loved them all. There’s Pat who loves music. Fitzgerald asks her, “If someone were to write a piece of music for you, how would you want it to make you feel?” Her thirty second description contains a whole life. Also, there’s Sally. Sally is the lady who gave the programme its title. Even though she’s ill, her concern is the health of a nation. She asks her neighbours for advice – not because she needs it, but because she recognises people feel important when they give it. She’s aware that people are ‘little volcanoes,’ all bubbling up inside, vessels of magma, that can be cooled by kindness or erupted via slight. Ultimately, people need to be treated with dignity, otherwise the effects can be catastrophic.

Essentially, ‘Little Volcanoes’ is about what it means to care, whether that be personally, professionally or philosophically. All of the people in the documentary – staff, patients, documentarian – do this by living a life that shows a regard for others. I’m very proud of my mum who's devoted her life to caring.

Caring ... what could be a more beautiful word?

Little Volcanoes is available here: https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b0bjz99z