Stranger: “6^th Floor Please!”

Me: “No problem, that’s our floor too.”

Stranger: “That’s a tough floor to have someone on.”

Me: “Who do you have here?”

Stranger: “My husband.”

Me: “What’s he here for?”

Stranger: “He’s having both his legs amputated tomorrow.”

Me: “I’m sorry.  I hope he recovers soon.”

Stranger: “He won’t recover.”

Me: “What do you mean?”

Stranger: “The doctors have already said that he will not recover.”

Me: “Then, why are you putting him through the surgery?”

Stranger: “That’s what I said to the doctors.”

“Yall Take Care of Me”

We got off the elevator and went our separate ways without exchanging names, only heartfelt sympathy and empathy.  Later that weekend as my sister and I stood vigil in my stepmom’s hospital room, I could hear a man moaning and groaning loudly.  It was an eerily depressing sound like none I’d ever heard before.  I couldn’t help but wonder if this were the husband of the woman I’d met on the elevator.   I turned my thoughts back to my stepmom who looked so small, weak, and fragile.  At times we were not sure if she would make it.  She would come in and out of consciousness, but would seem to perk up a little when she saw my sister and I.

She could barely talk, except to whisper, “Yall take care of me,” in her soft southern voice.   I assured her that we would make sure she was taken care of and to just rest.  She’d been admitted initially for dehydration.  Little did we know that her waning energy and spirit was due to her kidney’s failing.  Before she was admitted to the hospital, she was slowly slipping away.  All she wanted to do was sleep.  Thankfully we got help in time.  In the last four months, she has pulled through high blood pressure, congestive heart failure, diverticulitis, kidney failure, and now dialysis.  She’ll be 84 in a couple of months and has to have dialysis three times a week.  Still, she gets up every day now full of hope and faith and tells all of her family and friends that she loves them.

To continue to Part 2:  Health Is One of the Greatest Gifts, click here http://wp.me/ppImQ-jQ

Barbara Talley is a workshop leader, keynote speaker, author, and publisher who speaks and writes on value-based living themes. www.thepoetspeaks.com