That Moment When You’re Worried About the Elderly and Realize That You Are the Elderly!
Time waits for no one and it won’t wait for me.
I have always been a healthy woman, rarely sick other than the occasional cold. My parents raised me to help those older than myself and those not as able.
I am what you would call a nurturer. Back in my day, if you wanted to be a nurse you lived in residence at the hospital where you trained. It was the right place for me. My favorite ward was the emergency department (ER). The hospital was in the downtown core of Vancouver BC. It was close to what we call the Downtown Eastside. Previously we would have called it skid row.
I was raised in a very protected family and not exposed to the seamier side of life.
Going into the ER at 19 years of age was a real eye-opener. I had been told by my father that a lady never has more than one drink. I saw men and women that were brought in after being on benders for over a month.
I saw heroin overdoses, domestic abuse, prostitutes — both men and women, and death.
Through it all, I felt patients needed kindness and help. In those days everybody got breakfast before they left after an overnight stay in…
