Every morning I drive to work through the Texas Medical Center, which is home to dozens of hospitals and clinics. The streets are crowded with doctors and nurses, all wearing their scrubs and stethoscopes around their necks and usually bustling from parking garages to their respective offices. Medical students crowd the entrances to the teaching hospitals and visitors file through the entrances waiting to see patients.
Recently, I spent 36 hours straight in one of the 50-story hospitals with my dear friend who was recovering from surgery (Hi Tree!). It was an experience like none other. The things you see in a hospital of that size are so amazing and varied. There is sadness and death mixed with happiness and rejoicing. One family goes there to say goodbye, while another welcomes the newest member. Until that experience with Tree, it never really occurred to me about how many life-altering experiences happen in that small patch of land. So many dreams realized. So many lives ending. So many lives saved.
This morning, I was driving by one of the hospitals when I came to a stoplight. I sat there for a few moments before I noticed an elderly couple standing outside one of the hospitals. Their faces were close together and it was clear that they were having a very serious, yet intimate, conversation. From what I could tell from body language, the old man was apologizing for something. The old lady kept shaking her head, as if in disbelief. There was something completely tender and raw about the moment.
The way the old man pulled her hand to his heart and brushed the hair behind her ear made me melt. They stood there like that for a minute, looking at each other and I could only imagine that there was a lifetime of unspoken emotions being shared between them right there in the middle of the sidewalk. Their eyes said things that words could never, ever do justice to.
The world seemed to stop around them as the lady lifted her face up to his and for a moment I knew they were about to kiss, deeply and passionately. My heart stopped for a beat and my ears flushed. I knew I was about to witness such a private, beautiful moment and that I should look away. But I couldn't. I was mesmerized by this couple, so I sat and stared and watched them as their lips came closer together.
And just when I knew the moment was unfolding as it should, the lady took one dramatic step backwards and in a swift, fluid movement lifted her hand and slapped the old man as hard as she could. She hit the old fellow so hard that he rocked back on his heals and I thought he might collapse. To be fair, I don't think this was just an ordinary slap. It wasn't like Scarlett O'Hara uttering "mercy me!" then smacking Rhett Butler. It was more like a pimp punching a whore with an open fist. Like 50 years of anger had just escaped her in that one moment.
By the time her arm came to rest by her side, the old lady seemed years younger. The lines on her face seemed disappear and for a moment I could what she looked like when she was a young woman. As the light changed to green, I glanced over one more time at the couple. The lady stood on her tiptoes and let her lips brush his cheek, the same one she had just slapped. Then she turned and walked away, leaving the man there motionless and stunned.
It wasn't until the car behind me honked twice that I managed to pull through the light and continue on my way. I watched the old lady in my rearview mirror until she disappeared behind me. Even in the distance I could tell that a smile still graced her lips. Part of me wanted to stop and buy her a cup of coffee. Then she would tell me what he had done to precipitate the clearly uncommon act of aggression. No matter what she said, I'd respond with: GIRL, OH NO HE DIDN'T! But for fear of scaring the old woman to death, thus risk my receiving any of her wrath, I kept on driving.
Nonetheless, I'm pretty sure that an older version of me or a younger version of her could have been very good friends.
Recently, I spent 36 hours straight in one of the 50-story hospitals with my dear friend who was recovering from surgery (Hi Tree!). It was an experience like none other. The things you see in a hospital of that size are so amazing and varied. There is sadness and death mixed with happiness and rejoicing. One family goes there to say goodbye, while another welcomes the newest member. Until that experience with Tree, it never really occurred to me about how many life-altering experiences happen in that small patch of land. So many dreams realized. So many lives ending. So many lives saved.
This morning, I was driving by one of the hospitals when I came to a stoplight. I sat there for a few moments before I noticed an elderly couple standing outside one of the hospitals. Their faces were close together and it was clear that they were having a very serious, yet intimate, conversation. From what I could tell from body language, the old man was apologizing for something. The old lady kept shaking her head, as if in disbelief. There was something completely tender and raw about the moment.
The way the old man pulled her hand to his heart and brushed the hair behind her ear made me melt. They stood there like that for a minute, looking at each other and I could only imagine that there was a lifetime of unspoken emotions being shared between them right there in the middle of the sidewalk. Their eyes said things that words could never, ever do justice to.
The world seemed to stop around them as the lady lifted her face up to his and for a moment I knew they were about to kiss, deeply and passionately. My heart stopped for a beat and my ears flushed. I knew I was about to witness such a private, beautiful moment and that I should look away. But I couldn't. I was mesmerized by this couple, so I sat and stared and watched them as their lips came closer together.
And just when I knew the moment was unfolding as it should, the lady took one dramatic step backwards and in a swift, fluid movement lifted her hand and slapped the old man as hard as she could. She hit the old fellow so hard that he rocked back on his heals and I thought he might collapse. To be fair, I don't think this was just an ordinary slap. It wasn't like Scarlett O'Hara uttering "mercy me!" then smacking Rhett Butler. It was more like a pimp punching a whore with an open fist. Like 50 years of anger had just escaped her in that one moment.
By the time her arm came to rest by her side, the old lady seemed years younger. The lines on her face seemed disappear and for a moment I could what she looked like when she was a young woman. As the light changed to green, I glanced over one more time at the couple. The lady stood on her tiptoes and let her lips brush his cheek, the same one she had just slapped. Then she turned and walked away, leaving the man there motionless and stunned.
It wasn't until the car behind me honked twice that I managed to pull through the light and continue on my way. I watched the old lady in my rearview mirror until she disappeared behind me. Even in the distance I could tell that a smile still graced her lips. Part of me wanted to stop and buy her a cup of coffee. Then she would tell me what he had done to precipitate the clearly uncommon act of aggression. No matter what she said, I'd respond with: GIRL, OH NO HE DIDN'T! But for fear of scaring the old woman to death, thus risk my receiving any of her wrath, I kept on driving.
Nonetheless, I'm pretty sure that an older version of me or a younger version of her could have been very good friends.
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