True Love at Grace Hospital.

After at least a 6 year absence I returned to the Emergency Room of Grace Hospital last night around 1:30 in the morning. 

  

Early the next day I saw something beautiful in the hallways. 

There were two elderly patients lying in beds directly in front of me.  To the right side they wheeled in an elderly Asian man and to the left there was another elderly patient.  The Asian man had started vomiting when he tried to eat something.  Same thing happened to the man with the British accent who was lying just a few feet away from me. 

At one point, lying all alone and in his despair he quietly uttered to himself that he felt like he was dying. 

He was going diarrhea every few minutes and he couldn’t take much more.  He asked the Dr. to give him something for it but they didn’t give him anything.  They were worried about possible side effects.  Every few minutes he would start coughing and with every sound I could hear the massive collection of phlegm that had built up in his lungs.  It was a sound I knew all too well from the previous 5 – 7 visits or more I had made to the emergency room over the last 20 years or so.

 Actually my first trip to the hospital due to asthma had been when I was just a few weeks old and after I had gone home for the first time.  It took 6 nurses and 2 Dr.’s I’m told to hold me down to put a needle in my forehead.  My dad said the guy in the room next to me was so upset by what he had heard from me that he had wanted to punch all of those nurses and Dr’s out.

Still, amongst all the grief of the pain and suffering in that hallway I saw something truly amazing and beautiful.  It was love. 

At around 10 am that morning visiting hours opened to the general public.  I was happy to see that all of the patients surrounding me had at least one visitor who was very happy to see the person they were there to see.

 I was really touched by the elderly English couple who were just a few feet away from me.  The love that she had for her husband was easily apparent in her eyes and the smile she had on display every time he looked at her face.  She did everything she could to help him, which meant untangling the mess that had become of his IV and his hospital gown which did not cover up enough.

While she was there he said it again.  “It feels like I’m dying”. 

“Don’t talk like that,” she said.

As she left about an hour later they made plans to see each other again later in the day.  They held hands and both said “I love you”.

I was deeply touched.  It was one of the most beautiful things I’ve ever seen in my life.  True love does exist. 

ps. I would like to thank all of the staff at the Grace Hospital Emergency Room.