Have you had your meds yet ?

The hospital is quite a depressing place to be. I would know. I have clocked in countless of hours either to take my mother’s medicine on her behalf, or just taking her for her usual scheduled appointments. The waiting can  be endless at University Hospital, shuffling you from one counter to the next.  

You are surrounded by people who are in in the midst of some obvious physical,and not so obvious ailments, or people just old and waiting their turn to get their monthly supply of medicine to keep on holding to ‘good’ health. “Ting-tong”.. the PA would sound out and your number flashed on the Led panel and  they trudge to the counter to get their usual ‘fix’.  ( sometimes, I wonder if these people ever think there would this big “ting-tong” from heaven calling their number).

Anyway, you get the picture, it’s not New Year day parade in NYC 

Looking for a place to sit, I was pleasantly surprised to see this couple wave at me signaling a seat next to them. So I took my seat next to them, and made the customary polite conversation.

Falling to the mood of the place I uttered, “ ho kun yew loi“ (such a terrible long wait) to which she replied, “moh tai lah, ke ho mah ..“ to not look at the numbers (in other words, don’t focus on what’s not moving..)

So I asked her where did she come from, “kepong “ she said,continued to say she had to get on the road quite early to get the taxi.

“a taxi??,  and so early?” I thought to myself, oh wow.. 
(I might have looked for a sharp knife  .. )

“But it was not so bad the traffic this morning” she replied positively. 

I continued. “Ho yumm kung” ( pitiful/sad) ... I nodded toward the old  woman  (bent) at the counter“ .. (that the old are left to fend for themselves.. )

But she refused to go along .. “ after some thought, she replies , nowadays, it’s also very difficult for the children, also have their work and demands” 

I had to take a second look at this lady, probably in her late 60s, cantonese speaking, the man next to her, appears more like a friend, equally friendly. But they were both walking on a different plane from me.

so uncharacteristically positive.

(It turns out they had accompanied their neighbour to the hospital as she had a problem with the eyes and could not have made the trip by herself, so these two accompanied her). 

How to get these kinds of neighbors ahh..??

Regrettably, I had to move to another counter/ waiting area as I would have loved to talk to her some more. (on hind sight, i should have snap a we-fie with these special people!)

Just a 10 minutes of exchange, and I was challenged to straightened up my outlook and do an attitude check. She brought an uncommon dose of positivity.

And personally, it was the perfect kind of medicine I coudn't have asked for .. 

 (wished I had taken a picture with her, that would have completed my post)