They travel with the other women doctors and nurses on the tedious journey to Serbia and arrive to confront the reality of their new lives in the typhus-stricken and war-torn country.

 

They live in tents with only the basic necessities, the hospital conditions are primitive and the work is emotionally and physically demanding. 

 

But under the strict management of Mrs. Mabel Stobart, who set up the hospital, they soon become an efficient and companionable team.  And the long and arduous hours are offset by the satisfaction of their achievements and the warm camaraderie that develops around the camp fire and in their time off there is fun and laughter and intrigue and secrets.  

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Sarah meets a young Serbian colonel and reluctantly finds herself falling in love even though she knows their relationship has no future.  

 

Their happiness is crushed and everyone’s life is shattered when the German and Austrian armies over run the Serbian defences and surge though the country, destroying the towns and massacring the population.  

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In the turmoil of defeat, Sarah and her colleagues are forced to abandon everything and flee to safety over the mountains with the Serbian Army. 

 

And for Sarah and Konrad there is the extra pain of parting without knowing whether they will ever see each other again.

The hospital staff depend entirely on the leadership of Mrs.  Stobart to guide them with only her compass across the trackless mountains. 

 

They are forced to abandon their wagons and continue on foot towards the safety of Scutari on the distant coast.

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“Can we survive?”  is the question that haunts their days and nights as they face the prospect of dying of exposure in the bitterest of winters, only saving themselves from starvation by eating their oxen.  

 

For Sarah, the struggle to reach safety is imbued with the hope of, perhaps, finding Konrad again as her personal journey builds to a denouement with an unpredictable  twist.

 

“A Meaningful Life"is the unknown true story of a group of dedicated women.   Through Mabel Stobart, the fiercely independent suffragist, Sarah and other memorable characters,  there emerges the achievements of a group of ordinary women who became the pioneers of women’s rights and the empowerment of woman of today.