Preparation

Every morning I see them. Patients coming to be picked up in special beds that originate from the operating department on the third floor if TVG. The beds come with special orderlies who wear a purple top, and the patients are covered under a thick light green blanket.

Everyday I see a scene like that, I'm reminded of that day when they came for my mum. An anxious day, an anxious few hours of waiting outside the operating area, hoping and praying. I'm sure with every patient that is about to be wheeled to the third floor is a whole host of people who are going to be anxiously hoping and praying too...

Every time I see this scene, I try to take a good look at the patient and flash them with a smile. Silently, deep inside I wish the patient a successful operation and a speedy recovery. For for many the journey down to the third floor on that special hospital bed and under that thick light green blanket is just the beginning of a long process...

eldery man

"He has no relatives, no carer," the radiological technician said, "He's all alone by himself."

I looked at the elderly man lying there on the stretcher which slowly retreated from deep inside the body imaging scanner. He had all sorts of tubes attached to his body, including a catheter tube. I could not see his face, only part of the dark blue hospital gown that I recognised from when dad wore it around four years ago.

Poor man, I thought... All alone by himself undergoing such an exhausting and emotionally daunting scan. How he must feel deep inside. What is his story, i wondered. Why is he all alone here in the hospital when, as far as I can tell, he is in poor health and cannot move by himself? Perhaps one day that could be me lying there, all alone, all by myself...

The technician called a few idle nurses and carers who were standing in the corridor to help him move the elderly man from the body scanner to his hospital bed. I watched as they slowly wheeled him away.

Silently, I wished him well... Silently, I hoped he has family and friends who will soon come and take his loneliness away...