Willie

 

 Willie

 

Willie 

I had been missing in action for a little while.  I ended up in the Timaru Hospital for a week or more  and was tempted to say enough is enough.   While I was incarcerated, my thoughts began to dwell on those who end up in hospital and have nothing better to do but criticize the nurses, the food, the service and the doctors.  I have landed in the Timaru Hospital on several occasions and each time I have nothing but admiration for those nurses and doctors who work their fingers to the bone but  never seem to satisfy some .  Well, I don’t suppose they work their fingers to the bone, but you know what I mean?  As for the food, what is wrong with it?   Some seem to expect a butler and a maid, along with a silver service and a glass of champagne.  If the truth be known, their meals are a darn side better here than they get at home.

While I was in there, I couldn’t help thinking of my first visit to the same hospital more than sixty years ago, with appendicitis.  I was about 16 years old then and had testosterone by the bucketful, boiling through my veins.  Back then it was a two week stay in bed. 

It was on the last day this beautiful young nurse came to inspect the wound near to my groin.  Man, she was beautiful, with raven black hair, sparkling eyes and ruby red lips and that body.  Oh God, she was something else.  Her hands were as soft as velvet as she attended to the wound.  Removing the bandage, she lightly massaged the area without a smile.

It was about then Willie began to wake up, oh the wee bugger, he would embarrass me, wouldn’t he.  I’m sure the nurse made out she had not noticed, for she never smiled as Willie leisurely rose from beneath the bedclothes. At this point I wondered if she had, in another life, been a snake charmer.  

Out of the corner of my eye I spotted Matron heading our way, busily checking on the young nurse.  Like a parade Sergeant, she marched to the nurse’s side and took one look at Willie. 

With a flourish, she whipped the pencil out of her breast pocket, like she was about to conduct the National Orchestra.   Then wham!!  She belted poor Willie. 

That’s when the nurse came to life.   She then had the audacity to laugh at my embarrassment.