One day while volunteering at our local ER I met a Complete Stranger. I was sitting at the front desk waiting for the Nurse in the exam room next me to finish triaging a patient so that I could take her to a ER room so the doctor could see her. I sat there watching the different people around me. I noticed this elder gentleman on the other side of the desk sitting in his wheelchair.
He sat there talking to himself at least that is what I thought he was doing. He was trying to talk to the other people in the ER but they just ignored him. The lady who transports people to their vehicles was busy at the time moving patients out of the ER who had already been seen. She told me that this man was going to have to sit here for a while before anyone could take him outside to his car. At the moment I wasn't doing anything so I told the nurse I would be out a few minutes and she said that would be fine because she wasn't done with the patient that she was examining. I told the lady handling the transporting that I would take care of the man in the wheelchair for her. She was glad since she had many patients lined up waiting for her assistants. So I told the man that I would be taking him to his car and asked if he was ready to leave. He said that he was more than ready to go and glad for my help. I unlocked his wheelchair and then we were on our way down to the car park. He was parked on the opposite side of the building so we had to take a few elevators to get to where we were going.
On our way out after introducing ourselves he began to tell me about how he used to be in the military and how he served in the war. He asked if I had ever heard about certain locations and I told him that I had because my great grandfather was in the military and he had been to those exact locations. It turned out that they were about the same age and both served in the United States Marines. He told me about how he was a pilot in the Marines and I told him about my grandfather being a Master Gunnery Sargent. We talked about the war and he went on to tell me about his best friend who didn't make it out alive. He was sad about it but he told me that his best friend was a great soldier and an ever better friend to him during their time in the war together. We finally made it to his car and he thanked me for listening to his stories. I was glad to hear them as I have missed my grandfather telling me his stories of the war. This moment in life made me think about what we might learn about people if we just take the time to listen and think of someone besides ourselves. We could make a world of difference in someone’s life or if we are lucky they will make differences in our lives.
He sat there talking to himself at least that is what I thought he was doing. He was trying to talk to the other people in the ER but they just ignored him. The lady who transports people to their vehicles was busy at the time moving patients out of the ER who had already been seen. She told me that this man was going to have to sit here for a while before anyone could take him outside to his car. At the moment I wasn't doing anything so I told the nurse I would be out a few minutes and she said that would be fine because she wasn't done with the patient that she was examining. I told the lady handling the transporting that I would take care of the man in the wheelchair for her. She was glad since she had many patients lined up waiting for her assistants. So I told the man that I would be taking him to his car and asked if he was ready to leave. He said that he was more than ready to go and glad for my help. I unlocked his wheelchair and then we were on our way down to the car park. He was parked on the opposite side of the building so we had to take a few elevators to get to where we were going.
On our way out after introducing ourselves he began to tell me about how he used to be in the military and how he served in the war. He asked if I had ever heard about certain locations and I told him that I had because my great grandfather was in the military and he had been to those exact locations. It turned out that they were about the same age and both served in the United States Marines. He told me about how he was a pilot in the Marines and I told him about my grandfather being a Master Gunnery Sargent. We talked about the war and he went on to tell me about his best friend who didn't make it out alive. He was sad about it but he told me that his best friend was a great soldier and an ever better friend to him during their time in the war together. We finally made it to his car and he thanked me for listening to his stories. I was glad to hear them as I have missed my grandfather telling me his stories of the war. This moment in life made me think about what we might learn about people if we just take the time to listen and think of someone besides ourselves. We could make a world of difference in someone’s life or if we are lucky they will make differences in our lives.
Marine Master Gunnery Sargent E9 1924-2004
This post is day 3 of a writing challenge that I am doing. I will be posting some of the post here and keeping some for my journal.
