After more than 36 years at CHFT, Matron, Karen Farrar said an emotional final farewell to colleagues, when she retired last Friday.

Anyone who knows Karen probably also knows that she likes to write a blog or two, so here’s more in her words about her time at CHFT – including how she was the last nurse to leave the old Royal Halifax Infirmary in 2001 and how she cried all the way in the taxi to the new CRH building.

“I first started as a student nurse at Calderdale Health Authority on Monday 4th January 1988, and here I am just about to retire.

One of my last placements was on McCrea ward at the Royal Halifax Infirmary which was a huge 30 bedded female trauma ward. It was an extremely busy and back-breaking ward. We even had to make up our own traction beds to put up what was known as Hamilton Russell traction for our fracture neck of femur patients. I absolutely knew that orthopaedics was where I wanted to be, and that is more or less (with a couple of exceptions), where I have remained.

Moving to the new CRH building was like a military operation. On the day we had three lots of staff on shift; very early morning, a mid-shift and a late shift, plus the team at CRH to accept the patients as they came down. We were extremely well organised on McCrea and Baldwin (our male ortho ward).

We even had time to wash patients’ hair, put curlers in and then do a blow dry! There was a real team spirit and can-do attitude - it was amazing. I literally washed every bit of equipment as the removal men were taking it away. Nothing left the ward with a mark on it, and our two wards were the last to move. I got into the taxi with another nurse from McCrea, but I was the one that literally was the last nurse out of the door. I cried all the way from Royal Halifax Infirmary to CRH and our new ward on ward 8A - Swallowdale as it was then known.

We had some amazing “old school” ward sisters and nursing officers as they were then known. My word they knew every little detail about every patient, and you had to as well, especially on a night shift when they came round, and you had to stand up when they came on the ward and then do a ward round with them at 02:00. It’s easy to be nostalgic, but they were very, very happy days and I loved it.

I can’t quite believe how quickly the time has flown, but I have loved every minute of it. I have been completely dedicated to CHFT and the wider communities of Calderdale and Kirklees, and I do feel that the Trust and these communities are like a part of a big family and an extension of my own.

However, I couldn’t have carried on working without the support of my mum and dad and family members in helping me to look after my son Joshua when he was little. I am forever grateful to them for being able to continue my nursing career. My mum actually worked for the health authority - initially as a cadet in 1960 and then moving to her nurse training and subsequent qualification. Joshua also worked for the Trust in main reception, ED reception and then ED as a healthcare and he is now an emergency care practitioner with YAS. So, we as a family have very much been involved with the Trust for a lot of years which I think is a great achievement.

The only regret that I have is not starting a diary. I have so many stories to tell (in my own unique style as followers of blogs on Facebook will know) and I just wish that I had them written down!

I am very much looking forward to my retirement - being able to spend time with family, walking Reggie (Joshua’s dog who is famous in his own right) and going to our home in Spain. I have some jobs lined up for my husband Mark, who is thrilled that I will be spending more time at home (those that know Mark will be able to picture his face), but he's very happy that he doesn’t have to drive me up and down the bypass on an almost daily basis.

I may come back to do some bits and bobs if services will have me, but for the next month or so I am just going to spend some time in the garden, take stock and see where the wind blows. The teams that I have worked for are fantastic and I will miss them all very much, especially my band 7 colleagues and my matron colleagues and I wish them all well in their own future careers.

In summary - it’s been a pleasure to serve, to commit, to care for all those that I have had the pleasure of coming into contact with and I hope that in some small way, even with a smile or a hold of a hand, that I have made a difference to someone at a most difficult time.

If I have, then it’s a job well done, and I would do it all again in a heartbeat."