Little Corner of Hell
Little Corner of Hell
In a hidden corner of the hospital, on the second floor there lies a room. The chairs are anything but comfortable and a place of rest during the long frantic hours for those waiting. The room is usually dark as those in who wait there seem to shun the brightness of the light. It almost seems to bright; to hopeful. The darkness somehow seems to be a strange comfort for those waiting. It envelopes the physical surroundings as an outward manifestation of what the inner soul is feeling.
Until now I didn’t know that such a room existed. Don’t get me wrong, I have been in my share hospital waiting rooms. I have even spent many nights sleeping in their chairs or occasionally even a couch. There were usually blankets and pillows offered to fend off the nervous chills, and offer some comfort for the families who sought just being near to a loved one in some sort of medical distress. There was usually the air of concern and uncertainty as families and friends worried over the stay of those whose vigil they stood.
But this room was different. I knew about the Intensive Care Unit, and knew that it was not the place you wanted to be waiting for news of a loved to come. Yet somehow, even though I had heard of people being in critical condition, until now I didn’t know there was a holding place where the families of the critically injured awaited news. A place separated from what now seemed like the fortunate or lucky families that waited for news from the I.C.U. on another floor. This was the place of darkness; a cubicle of diminished hope, a place where the anxious frantically wait for the doorway to be darkened by medical staff bringing news. Cruelly however, most times they were only met by the startled stare of someone who had wandered into the wrong corner of the hospital. This is a place of stomach’s tied in knots, swollen eyes wet with tears, fervent prayer and blasphemous condemnations. It is a little corner of hell reserved for the families of those to whom the shadow of death looms way to near.
