“Come closer dear, I CAN’T HEAR YOU!”
Eileen is sitting out in her blue hospital chair with some thin blankets across her knees. Her glasses are large gold rimmed things that sit on her small face, and she has a cloud of white hair flattened from being in bed so much.
I was warned about her, but the seemingly frail creature in front of me doesn’t meet the ‘difficult’ hip operation patient I’ve heard about.
I crouch down so I am near Eileen and her catheter bag and the stench of urine that I have become accustomed to on this ward and introduce myself.
“Eileen my name is Alex; I am a student.”
“Well then?? What do you want? I am NOT standing up, I am not, I am not, and that is final. Those horrible nurses came this morning!”
“I just wanted to see you for a chat Eileen.”
Slowly, her head rises and a small smile forms on her face, quickly redressed by “Well? What do you want to talk about?”
She has an air of Catherine Tate’s nan and reminds me of my own family from the East End, and I immediately warm to her.
“I just want to know how you are, how you are feeling today. It can’t be easy being here.”
“I want to walk. I know I can, but they don’t tell me what I do right, I got out of bed didn’t I?” I nod as though to say yes and stay close.
She has tears in her eyes now and her voice breaks as she says, “You think I can do it, don’t you?"
“Yes, of course.”
She nods this time and adds, “Yes, in my own time and in my own way,” and I try not to laugh.
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