Eavesdropping.....but Hard Not To.....

A small hospital in Colorado.....me sitting on a bed in a "room" in the ER. The kind of room that has no real walls.....just curtains that slide on tracks separating one patient from the next. The curtains do provide visual privacy.....but talking, or weeping, moaning, or coughing passes right through the fabric. Can't be helped and really, I wasn't there for any serious concerns. Others were.

It was pretty quiet when I checked in and everyone I encountered was more than nice and very professional. X-rays were taken very quickly, nurses took measurements, therapists came and went......and then I waited for the results and information for about three hours.

In the beginning of my stay I could tell a very elderly gentleman was in the bed next to mine. It was obvious in his voice, his wife's and his daughter's. After a few hours he was sent off via ambulance to a rehab facility and the room was cleaned.

It got much busier. The nurses' station was just outside and suddenly I could hear a nurse talking in a very soft voice.....I believe she was talking to the hospital's chaplain or social worker. Not a direct quote but basically she was saying " He came in by ambulance from the gun range and was dead on arrival. So if you would please go notify the family."  I didn't listen on purpose, but fabric doesn't block much sound.

Then a young man arrived to occupy the bed next to mine....the story drifted across the curtain rod.Sixteen years old, skateboarding with a friend on the first day of his summer vacation, took a bad fall....fractured collarbone. His mother and step-father arrived, several buddies and his girlfriend. I never saw anyone.....just heard the comments.

Then I heard that nurse on the phone again, calling a local funeral parlor and asking them to come get the body, take it to their facility and the family would be in contact.

And then.....I guess this was the conversation that bothered me the most.....the skateboarder's mother was going on and on about her faith and how important her church was to her  and how the Bible's teachings guided her life. Right before launching into some of the most vile, un-Christian like comments about immigrants and those who do not share her faith.  Conversation directed at four high school students.

I closed my eyes and practiced deep breathing and went back to my book. My test results finally came back, and some instructions and I was free to go.  For me it had been a blip on the radar, spend with some free WIFI time and a very good book.....and a little unintentional but couldn't be helped eavesdropping.

Life in a small town hospital......unexpected changes bringing three local families to the ER that day. Some would heal quickly and get back to normal activity, some might get to go home from the nursing  home.....one family suffered a permanent loss.

And one lady proved to me, once again, that there are Sunday Christians who interpret the Bible in a way that supports some pretty ugly behavior. And passes it on to the next generation.