Sunday, October 03, 2004
FAREWELL TO FORT LEONARD WOOD HOSPITAL...APRIL 1980....
The next day Warren got the IV’s out. It was one more step towards being free of all the necessary support that he needed for so long. He was completely unplugged now and operating on his own. However he still had to go back to surgery one last time before we were to fly out the next day.
Mom and Becky came back with our pastor’s wife to visit since we would be leaving soon. It was good to see them; I’d only seen mom one other time since the ordeal started. We would be away for several weeks so I was glad Becky would be home to check on her until our return. Mom and Vera left late afternoon and Becky and I went to eat. Becky was going to stay with me one last night so she could drive our car home the next day.
We said goodbye to a lot of the vendors and staff that we had been a part of for so many days…..we stopped by ICU…. it was bitter and sweet. They had become very special to us and I knew we would never see the same group of people in one place again. Life doesn’t linger long around a hospital. The patients who get better pick up where they left off and go on…..the others either die or have to go to an assisted living facility. Friendships are made quickly but briefly. Waiting rooms bring strangers together like “ships passing in the night” and then you never see them again.
When we were in ICU for so long, I had each of the medics that took care of Warren sign their name in the journal I kept and long afterwards we would look at those names and wonder what ever became of them. Many had come in from Illinois as I mentioned before….for their 2-week Army duty as Reservists…and many of them were promoted and went to other hospitals around the country. We always enjoyed hearing about them whenever we went back to Fort Leonard Wood for check-ups or happened to bump into some of them at the PX or Commissary.
Becky and I spent our last night together and we talked back and forth from our beds until sleep finally silenced our thoughts. We were up and awake early the next morning as I had to check my luggage and eat by 6:30am. Ambulance attendants came to Warren’s room to take him to the airport and I was taken by bus. When we were loaded I looked out the window, trying to find Becky to wave at her….and when I discovered where she was….there was a crowd around her….the cleaning lady, Chaplin Farr, several of the ICU kids….some other medics from the last room…all waving and smiling.
The bus followed the ambulance and I waved as long as I could see them……we arrived at the airport and the plane was waiting. There were several others to be loaded and then the dependents boarded and were seated. I sat across from Warren who was strapped in to a bunk-like sling. He was cheerful and anxious to be on the way…….for ahead, at Fitzsimmons, he would begin his road back to what would be a normal life again…..but different.
As long as I shall live I will never experience another space of time to equal those days at Fort Leonard Wood Hospital. It was a time of greatness that only God can produce, with so many and in so small a frame. To all those dear souls I pray they are loved and treated as well on their journey…wherever that takes them.
Until tomorrow,
Essentially Esther
Mom and Becky came back with our pastor’s wife to visit since we would be leaving soon. It was good to see them; I’d only seen mom one other time since the ordeal started. We would be away for several weeks so I was glad Becky would be home to check on her until our return. Mom and Vera left late afternoon and Becky and I went to eat. Becky was going to stay with me one last night so she could drive our car home the next day.
We said goodbye to a lot of the vendors and staff that we had been a part of for so many days…..we stopped by ICU…. it was bitter and sweet. They had become very special to us and I knew we would never see the same group of people in one place again. Life doesn’t linger long around a hospital. The patients who get better pick up where they left off and go on…..the others either die or have to go to an assisted living facility. Friendships are made quickly but briefly. Waiting rooms bring strangers together like “ships passing in the night” and then you never see them again.
When we were in ICU for so long, I had each of the medics that took care of Warren sign their name in the journal I kept and long afterwards we would look at those names and wonder what ever became of them. Many had come in from Illinois as I mentioned before….for their 2-week Army duty as Reservists…and many of them were promoted and went to other hospitals around the country. We always enjoyed hearing about them whenever we went back to Fort Leonard Wood for check-ups or happened to bump into some of them at the PX or Commissary.
Becky and I spent our last night together and we talked back and forth from our beds until sleep finally silenced our thoughts. We were up and awake early the next morning as I had to check my luggage and eat by 6:30am. Ambulance attendants came to Warren’s room to take him to the airport and I was taken by bus. When we were loaded I looked out the window, trying to find Becky to wave at her….and when I discovered where she was….there was a crowd around her….the cleaning lady, Chaplin Farr, several of the ICU kids….some other medics from the last room…all waving and smiling.
The bus followed the ambulance and I waved as long as I could see them……we arrived at the airport and the plane was waiting. There were several others to be loaded and then the dependents boarded and were seated. I sat across from Warren who was strapped in to a bunk-like sling. He was cheerful and anxious to be on the way…….for ahead, at Fitzsimmons, he would begin his road back to what would be a normal life again…..but different.
As long as I shall live I will never experience another space of time to equal those days at Fort Leonard Wood Hospital. It was a time of greatness that only God can produce, with so many and in so small a frame. To all those dear souls I pray they are loved and treated as well on their journey…wherever that takes them.
Until tomorrow,
Essentially Esther
