Six Memories (From Childhood and Beyond)

[Joey Delgado]

1. Watching mom feathering her hair, dancing to Prince's "When Doves Cry", me thinking, She's so b-U-tiful.

 

2. Running barefooted after the ice cream man to buy Otter Pops (Alexander the Grape, my personal fave), a Pavlovian response upon hearing the scratched recording of "Pop Goes the Weasel".

 

3. Twitchy looking man coming up to dad and I at the gun range, asking to use my dad's .45, my dad encouraging him, giving him pointers in a voice soft as velvet while holding a 9 mm behind his back, just in case.

 

4. Great-grandmother talking about coming through Ellis Island, seeing the Statue of Liberty for the first time.

 

5. Having a coffee on the shore of Loch Ness, surrounded by misty mountains, sure that under the glassy lake a yellow-eyed prehistoric monster watched, waited for me to dip a toe in.

 

6. Washing a man's jaundiced body, changing his soiled sheets as he laughed about his family, raged about his family, cried over his family whose absence made his last hospital room feel as crowded as if they had actually been there.

[Michael Brown]

Sublime observations.

[Jeanette Cheezum]

A wonderful view into your life. The last one, resonates with us at this time in a painful way.

Great job on this, Joey. 

[Stephen Torelli]

I like your dad.

[Joey Delgado]

Thank you, Toby. I love it....mostly. :)

[Toby Tucker Hecht]

All such original experiences.  As many said, #6 is a stunner.  Nursing is such a noble profession.

[Joey Delgado]

Thank you guys! :)

Yeah, seeing that guy in his bed was very difficult to watch. He was dying of liver disease from a life of hard drinking (he was forty, by the way.) With that kind of disease, some may sound like they are perpetually drunk. I think it has something to do with the body not being able to filter toxins. I think about him often.

 

Teresa, number three does read so creepy, but actually I was trying to write up an Atticus Finch moment for the ole man. The weird guy approached us and dad had me take a few steps back, and instead of getting in a fight my dad calmly handled the situation, my dad. I was amazed. I wrote it all wrong.

[Angela]

All great so-called tiny moments, but number six was especially touching.  It felt very immediate.

[Ron. Lavalette]

My brother once put his arm through a glass storm door during his mad rush for pocket money when he heard the Good Humor truck coming down the street, which resulted in almost 50 stitches.  To this day, I get a little quesy when I think of it.

Wonderful work. The shooting range story especially striking.

[Bill Floyd]

Yeah, that last line is top-notch (the writing, not the memory): humane, well-constructed, shiver-inducing.  Then again, I'm all about the Loch Ness Coffee, too.  A rare sighting.  And the variety of scenes of your Great-grandmother, mother, and father show facets of what sounds like a cool gem.  

[Teresa]

Number one is oh so sweet.  You boys have us moms wrapped.  And two made me remember my own ice cream man (those red, white and blue "bullets" and the orange "push-ups"), but I can't remember the song playing, only that yes, it was scratchy.  Number three was creepy.  Five made me laugh, that last part.  Six was hard because it reminded me of watching friends die.  Your patients don't know how lucky they are to have you at bedside.