Sunday Scribblings "Hospital History"

Sometimes you need more than a band aid.

My dads sixty fifth birthday during his retirement party.

It was November, in the background is my signature pumpkin. Dad was diagnosed less than two months later with cancer of the esophagus. Mom clearly at his side was diagnosed five years later, also with Carcinoma, but of the lungs. Heavy smokers, mom started at thirty, hoping to keep her weight down. I have never felt the urge to try even a drag of a cigarette. Neither has my brother.

Sunday Scribblings " Hospital"

This may be a touch dry, but it is a little history,

in the best order that I can remember it.

Hospital History

Born in one

To a woman five feet tall,

One hundred three pounds

She hiked her skirt on

A Completely svelte body

Immediately after my birth

I was back at two

With pneumonia

Several return bouts

Adenoids were removed

At three years old

Then again at five

Along with tonsils

Then in my eighth year

Close to death

Exploratory surgery

Reveals

A burst appendix

Fifteen years later

A slip at work,

Caste for torn ligaments

Seven years pass

Twenty two hours

In a serene birthing room

Catastrophic pain

Wanting to die

My daughter is born

And I hemorrhage.

Next day

I set my hair

Prepared for motherhood

Following six weeks

In palliative care

My dad passes

Five years later

Palliative care again

I sit a vigil daily

For hours

Sometimes over night

Three months later

In the heat of the summer

She dies

Leaving me

A Thirty five year old

Orphan