Posts

  • FEAR OF TREES–REVISITED

    I am taking a break from writing about nursing… The devastation Hurricane Sandy caused this past week on the east coast has reinforced my fear of trees. I have resurrected a column I wrote that appeared in the Chapel Hill News on June 27, 2007. LIVING IN THE FOREST WITH MY FEAR OF TREES My Read more

  • VANISHED Part 3 of 3

    A couple of weeks after our hallway discussion, I spotted them exiting the elevator. Margaret pushed Josie in the wheelchair with one hand while lugging an IV pole with the other, rushing to the back door of the building and out to the parking lot in a obvious effort to avoid me. The bottle that Read more

  • VANISHED Part 2 of 3

    When the clinic first opened last year, Margaret would saunter in holding Josie’s hand, pulling her along. While Margaret’s stringy hair and disheveled clothes reflected an indifference to her own appearance, Josie always looked neat. Like a treasured, well cared for doll. Her deeply wrinkled face blank but her blue eyes held a sparkle. She Read more

  • VANISHED Part 1 of 3

    A feverish Chicago summer ebbed into autumn. No telltale falling leaves signaled the change of seasons on this block of concrete walkways surrounding the massive twenty-story apartment building. I yanked open the heavy door. Inside the foyer, through the grimy glass doors, I noticed Margaret parking Josie, in her wheelchair, in front of the elevator. Read more

  • UNCONVENTIONAL NURSING

        NAKED IN THE LABOR/DELIVERY ROOM Written by Ruth Donoghue Time: December in the early ‘90’s. Place: Nursery in a Catholic hospital where 5,000 babies pass through in a year. The call came from unit secretary. A nurse was requested as soon as possible to pick up a baby in delivery/labor room three. (Every Read more

  • TRICK OR TREAT AT THE FRONT DOOR; HEARSE AT THE BACK

    I have been pestering my classmates from nursing school (we are about to celebrate our fiftieth anniversary next month) to write their stories so I can post them on my blog. Maybe pestering is too mild a word. Regardless, I have succeeded. Two women have sent me stories. The first comes from Joan Moore.  This Read more