Sunday Morning Love Sickness

Sunday Morning Love Sickness

It’s Sunday morning on a cool, bright, Florida fall day. We drove to the hospital to visit our inpatient son. As we approach the hospital I debate about parking at the main parking lot

using the valet parking, which is only available at the emergency room entrance during weekends.

We opt for the emergency room entrance valet parking, due to my painful knee,  to avoid any unnecessary walking.  We pass the mostly empty ER waiting room and begin the walk down the many long hallways adorned by multiple large colorful Florida Nature themed pictures. Some of depict simple oak filled pastures, others flower filled ponds, fenced horses, as well as well known blue green rivers and swimming holes of the state,  tempting you to jump in right through them.

After several hospitalization visits, we are pretty familiar with the hospital, yet we still get lost from time to time. We walk to the elevators on the 1R level, which coincidentally is under the Ground level, and the second floor is directly above the Ground floor which leads to confusion for many visitors, and leads me to the rest of the story.

The thump and clunk, and ding of the elevator bell announce its arrival. The double stainless steel doors open and out comes a tall, slim gentleman, with white hair, wrinkled freckled skin, that speak of his late eighties age.  The old man walks out of the elevator with accidental pace, warbling a bit from side to side.  I asked him, can I help you?  I’m looking for room 110, but I don’t know where it is,. He says. I then stated,  “I’m not sure that there are rooms on the first floor, maybe in the emergency room. As the man starts to walk away on his short difficult steps my wife insists that I walk with him  in case he needs more help, to which I agreed.

As we slowly walk down a hallway we call the Hall of Fame, which is a long hallway that passes a wall filled with pictures and names of the hospital’s top administrative staff, the man tells me that he forgot his cane in his car.  I offered to lend him my cane, offer which he declined. We continue walking and find another long hallway to the right, labeled as the Emergency Observation rooms, so we enter. 

Just before we enter I asked the old man, who are you visiting? Your wife? A friend?My fiancé, he replied, as we enter the hallway and start looking at the room numbers. Without much though I said “just as important”, as count down the room numbers and we near the Room 110.

The room door is open and the curtain is drawn closed, and  the light was off. I could hear some voices, as the old man went passed me and neared the curtains. He slowly pushed the curtain to the left, as he quietly sneaked his face into the room. What are you doing here?  A lady’s voice exclames with emotion and joy  I’m here because of you! He said.  

At the same time an adorable short stature, bright eyed, pink skin, white haired lady, likely in her mid to late eighties, walks to the old man with happiness.  They were so caught up in their moment that  I quietly walked away in the midst of their encounter. I looked back once,  then continued on.  I felt like it was the end of “Touched by an Angel” episode, happy and satisfied with having completed a mission. The good Boys Scout deed of the day, having learned that love is ageless.  That love can help heal a Sunday morning love sickness. 

Ed Rentas Sr ‘23