Thursday, May 7, 2020

Nursing Bloodlines


This week is Nurse Appreciation Week I’m told and it could not come at a more appropriate time. The critical and heartbreaking duties of these stalwart heroes of the coronavirus pandemic are more than evident daily. It’s a little sad that it takes an event like this to recognize the intrepidness they demonstrate even when not taking their lives literally into their hands each day showing up for their critical duties.
Of course, I may be a little biased because I’ve spent my life surrounded by nurses. My mother was a nurse, Great Aunt is an ICU nurse, and heck, I almost married a nurse. I had a couple stays with the military hospital system during my Army career and I always looked to the nurses who seemed a lot more interested and caring about how I was feeling than the fleeting interactions with doctors. You’ve always got to look for silver linings in a storm tossed sky and coming out of this thing with a greater appreciation of nurses should definitely be one. So Mom, thank you for your service for so many years, first at Eliot Community Hospital and its successor and certainly to Great Aunt for her habitual steadfast courage always but especially in these dark times.
We had a funny episode typical of people who’ve been married a long time. My Favorite Panamanian is involved in an online charismatic Catholic group and one of the tasks she was given was to take a personality test (don’t ask me why – I still don’t understand). She completed the test and didn’t think the results represented her in the least. I suggested we take it together and let me answer some of the questions for her based on my 38 years of experience with her. Predictably the results were a lot more in line. We also had a lot of fun but I probably shouldn’t have laughed when the question asked dealt with punctuality.
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RECURRING CHARACTERS                                           
BR3 – inbound granddaughter #3, BRS - Blog Reader the Sequel - second granddaughter; FBR - First Blog Reader - first granddaughter, ABFA – Amazing Best Family Athlete = my daughter in law; Wingman – my son in law; Keene Friends 1 & 2 – friends since high school from my home town of Keene, NH; Soxfather - my brother in law; Great Aunt - my elder sister; Cantankerous Friend – friend since grade school who likes to argue about everything, poses as radical leftist to attract women; Pittsburgh College Roommate – high school friend, also a “Minor Celebrity” in Pittsburgh; Deckzilla – our backyard deck which grew to monstrous dimensions once my wife got involved in planning; Maine and Virginia Musqueteras – two close friends of my wife – her US sisters, my wife is the 3rd musquetera (musketeer); Riggins - also known as the Grandpuppy, son's dog; PanaGals – female relatives/friends of my wife from Panama; Panamanian/Latin Mafia – inevitable group of Latino friends my wife accumulates wherever we have lived & their spouses; Neighborhood Mafioso - wife's close friend and Panamanian mafia member, Favorite Panamanian - the wife (of course); First Friday – celebrations to mark the First Friday of the Week; Curbside Girls – close friends of my daughter acquired during her single days in Brooklyn

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