Insignificant Actions
People can be difficult and rude. Sometimes accommodating and charitable. What’s a nurse to do?
“Whatever you do will be insignificant, but it is very important that you do it.” — Mahatma Gandhi
THE ORANGE STICKER
One afternoon, during my first week as the Admission’s Coordinator for a local home health company, I pulled up in front of a two-story home with a bright orange “Eviction” sticker posted on the front door.
I’d been summoned to see a retired high school history teacher who’d lost his left lower leg and two toes on his right foot to diabetes.
Mike was 68-years-old, the size of an eighth grade girl, with blood-dried gauze around his left knee stump, and a handgun peeking out from under his right buttock.
After yelling “come in” from the couch, the next thing out of his mouth when he saw me was a disturbing comment regarding his male anatomy and the shape of my lips.
I won’t share the comment but he did manage to be sexist, demeaning, and grotesque in just a few words.
As a writer, I could only hope for such brevity of words. I looked at him. I don’t know what I expected.
