i think i'm pretty desensitised to death and dying. it's what happens when you work in a hospital. certifying deaths on the wards during night shift. family meetings with relatives.
most of the time i just switch it off, but there are a few times when death doesn't just pass you in the corridor like a distant acquaintance. sometimes in passing, it stares right at you- through you, for a brief moment.
a wife of 50 years stroking her husband's hemiparetic face. a boy, aged by grief as he watches his 20 year old girlfriend die of cancer. being consoled by her parents. an angry patient shouting and cursing in my department, bursting into tears before managing to utter these words - "i used to be normal, like you".
most of the time i just switch it off, but there are a few times when death doesn't just pass you in the corridor like a distant acquaintance. sometimes in passing, it stares right at you- through you, for a brief moment.
a wife of 50 years stroking her husband's hemiparetic face. a boy, aged by grief as he watches his 20 year old girlfriend die of cancer. being consoled by her parents. an angry patient shouting and cursing in my department, bursting into tears before managing to utter these words - "i used to be normal, like you".
