by John M. Gunn

You meet all kinds of people when you have a relative in a hospital. During my mothers recent visit to the hospital for surgery I talked with lots of people who had relatives in the hospital.

One such person was a woman from Magnolia Arkansas. Her husband had 5 by-pass surgery a couple days ago and was doing fine but she said he was worrying himself sick. She said he was worried about when he was going to be able to go back to work, who was going to take care of his cattle, etc., until he was able to do it all again. She told him to stop worrying.

She told me that the place where he works, the other employees and donated enough of their “Sick Days” to give hime 30 Days Extra Sick Days for Him. They had also taken up a Collection of money to cover their regular household expenses for about a month.

She told him this but said he was still worried. She told him that they would do just fine. She told him that as soon as he got out of the hospital and went to Rehab that she could go back to her regular job as an LVN at the Nursing Home. Her job was waiting on her.

Another story is a little is not so UP.

There was a man there whose 58 year old wife was in the hospital waiting for 4 by-pass heart surgery, or so they thought. I had talked with him often over several days. Friday evening after my mothers surgery I saw him again.

He said that his wife had been in the hospital 4 days. The day she checked in, she called her daughter (his Step-Daughter) who came rushing to the hospital from Hot Springs with her children. He said that shortly after his step-daughter arrived, he told her that if she would stay at the hospital that he needed to put in a few hours at work. I think he said that he was self-employed and hauled gravel and dirt in his dump truck.

The step-daughter told him “That is all you think about is yourself and your work. You don't care a bit about my mother and her health.” So he stayed there with his wife day and night. He told me that his step daughter had spent Maybe “3” hours with her mother in the last 4 days. She was taking her kids shopping, to the movies and doing everything else except spending time with her mother.

This was around 8:30 pm on a Friday night when I was talking with him. He said that they, including the daughter, had known since Thursday morning that his wife was going to have the heart surgery starting at 5:00 P.M on Friday. It was 8:30 when I was talking with him. He had just recently been told they were 3 hours into the operation and had about 2 more hours to go. They had also told him that instead of the 4 by-pass that they were going to have to do 5 by-passes.

Then he relayed the other information to me. He said that he hadn't seen the step-daughter all day and that he had no idea where she was, but that she wasn't in the hospital while her mother was having the surgery. I saw him Saturday and he said his wife came through the surgery fine Friday night but he still hadn't seen the girl since Thursday.

Sad but true as it was told to me.

Find out more about John Gunn at the John M. Gunn Company and Gunn's Guns.