The year 1951 was to prove a watershed in Kathleen Ferrier's life and career. In the middle of December 1950 her agent and friend, Emmie Tillett introduced her to a New Zealand nurse, Bernadine Hammond, or ‘Bernie’ as she came to be called. It was a fortuitous meeting. Emmie's mother, whom Bernie had been nursing, had just died, and by March 1951 ‘Paddy’ Jewett would leave Kathleen because her charge William Ferrier (or ‘Our Father who art in Hampstead’ as Kathleen described him) had died and soon after she became engaged to be married. Over tea on 26th February Bernie agreed to take Paddy's place, but it soon became apparent that all thoughts she had entertained of giving up nursing for secretarial work would have to be abandoned. It was certainly true that Kathleen now needed a full-time secretary rather than the part-time arrangement she and Paddy had entered into when her workload was lighter at the start of her career, but Bernie's nursing skills would be required more than ever after Kathleen was diagnosed with breast cancer in March 1951. She also became a close friend as well as a member of the painting circle called the ‘Elm Tree Road Group’, consisting of Emmie (who from 1949 lived at No.11 Elm Tree Road in St John's Wood), Bernie, Winifred and Kathleen. The four may have had nicknames judging by the word ‘Remanren’ in the letter to Emmie dated 21st January 1951. Is this perhaps a reference to two of them, Winifred and Bernie, in a combination of the painters Rembrandt and Renoir? Who was Rem and who was Ren is impossible to say; neither can we complete the quartet with the nicknames for either Emmie or Kathleen herself.

With no hint of impending personal tragedies, Kathleen's year began with a tour of European countries and its obligatory packed schedule. She flew off in a snowstorm on 2nd January to Amsterdam for four performances of Orfeo. She then went to Paris for a recital. Whilst there she studied Chausson's Poème de l’amour et de la mer and French with the baritone Pierre Bernac, followed by recitals and Kindertotenlieder in Zurich. She left for Rome on 29th January and upon her arrival the following day news came of her father's death, but she was dissuaded from returning home by her sister.