DREAM & STORIES

EXCERPT: Hospital Scents & Art

Have you spent much time in a rural hospital? I'm talking about above a third-world country, below metro-city, but not at all halfway between. Essentially, you could have in one small wing a doctor from an Ivy League school, a nurse who's been practicing 50 years, a lab worker who's 19 years old with a 2 year associates degree, and a surgeon who owns a ten acre farm with fifty head of cattle for a side hobby. Throw in some additional deep southern accents, and now you're getting closer to the picture. But that's the other problem with rural hospitals. Pictures. That word usually meant 4 colors in a frame, the John Deere tractor calendars, or a combination of almanac covers since 1930. In fact, the favorite pictures in rural medical facilities apparently were invisible. By that I mean there was just throwback wood paneling, combined with off-white wallpaper in each patient room while the lobby's array tended to be stark brick walls with slippery linoleum floors. I spent a lot of time in the lobby. Even as a kid those chairs sucked because with bad combinations of old fabric or hard plastic. I remember sticking my legs through every side of the frame hoping it would be more comfortable at a lucky odd angle. Sitting backwards was close since I could simultaneously rest my arms and chin, but that was how I realized there were no pictures anywhere behind me and that hospitals smelled funny. So, I started to draw. I hated waiting in rooms, waiting on rooms, waiting in hospitals. Drawing kept me from having to wait. 

TO BE CONTINUED...

Photo & Content Credit: Stephanie Fry