AlwaySane Is In Da House

Around The Hospital I

I think I will start writing about things I see around me. Working in a hospital, you see the softer, vulnerable side of humanity. You see strong men broke down in tears and career women on their knees trying to persuade their loved ones to respond. It’s heart-wrenching and it makes me ponder the irony of life.

One case that I had to interview recently was one Indian lady. Strong woman, works as a security guard, takes care of her children and their children. Husband was retrenched so she is the sole breadwinner. Her mother suffered a severe stroke and is bed-ridden. Can’t speak, can’t eat – she only lies on her bed and groans.

She told me that she was not her mother’s favorite child. They quarreled a lot and once, she wanted to move out of the house. “You know, I sometimes wish I can just go off. She (my mother) is so stubborn. She won’t listen!” You can say like mother, like daughter.

“But now, seeing her like that, I wish to take care of her all over again. I want her to go home so that I can clean her, feed her and just talk to her again. But you know I can’t. I want so much to bring her home, but it will never happen.”

Now the lady comes once or twice a week to talk to her mother and gives her massages on her back and hands. She whispered into her mother’s ear for a long while, before mom responds with an unusually loud groan. That’s when she knows her mother heard her.

Sometimes when we are staying with our parents or grandparents, they annoy us and we annoy them because we see things differently. We wish that they live in another country, another planet. But when you had to be forcefully separated from them, you yearn to be together, come hellfire or brimstone.

After the interview, I cried uncontrollably for the evening. Maybe I was just not built to be a journalist. Somehow, being detached from my subject and being objective is not fused into me.

But I know I’m built to be a learner. Seeing how a strong woman’s tears roll down her cheek is a lesson on unconditional love.

Jesus’ love for us is not just tears, but blood, forceful separation from His own Father and ultimately death - unconditionally. I hope you find strength in that to love those you have the chance to love.

Dad, mom, grandpa, grandma – THANK YOU AND I LOVE YOU.

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To be sane is a gift, not a choice.

Sane reflects @ this location permanently