COOPERATION & OUR PEOPLE
Hello everybody and thanks for checking out the blog. Dave, our internet guy, tells me that we get lots of hits on the blog, the only problem is that the posts are sometimes 2 weeks apart. I could probably post more often, but I'm not inspired to do so. I think there's enough blah, blah, blah on all forms of media to do for a lifetime, so when I'm inspired I post, if not then I don't. I'm not too bad to blah, blah, blah.
My inspiration this time is the intensive care waiting room at Pikeville Medical Center. I am fortunate to say that I have only experienced an ICU waiting room once in a hospital other than PMC, but I have experienced it 3 times here. I barely remember the experience at the other hospital, but my most recent experience at PMC was this past week. This post has nothing to do with the hospital, it has to do with the people in those ICU waiting rooms and the cooperation, care and compassion of those who are...waiting.
In this particular ICU waiting room there were several families, including my own. Well it's actually my wifes family, but after 36 years with them and the relationship we share, they ARE my family. In that room there are two phone extensions that seem to ring all the time. I called a couple of times for my wife, and if she was available she was called for and answered right away. If she wasn't readily available then someone went across the hall to see if she was in the other waiting room. As I was sitting there during one of my visits, people were constantly opening the door from the other waiting room asking if the So&So family was in there.
Then the question hit me! Does this happen everywhere? You know, places like New York, California, anywhere in an area where people don't make eye contact and say "hey how ya' doin' when they are walking down the street or going down the aisle in the grocery store; do they cooperate like our mountain people do in times like this? I was raised within 3 miles of where I'm sitting right now. I grew up in a little country store. When people in the community were experiencing such things as would land a family in an intensive care unit of that era, everyone helped as best they could. It wasn't taught; it was understood. Why? Because it was the right thing to do.
Here is what I know; times have changed and people have changed. A lot our culture and customs have evaporated, but taking care of each other, acquainted or not, during those bad times remains in our Hillbilly DNA. When it's bad and I mean really bad, I am thoroughly convinced that you'll answer that call from my family and my family will certainly do the same for yours.
Stay tuned and thanks
Randy
p.s. Sign the guest book while you're on the website and say howdy. Make comments or whatever. We won't spam you or sell your information to some list that will. It's just between us.
My inspiration this time is the intensive care waiting room at Pikeville Medical Center. I am fortunate to say that I have only experienced an ICU waiting room once in a hospital other than PMC, but I have experienced it 3 times here. I barely remember the experience at the other hospital, but my most recent experience at PMC was this past week. This post has nothing to do with the hospital, it has to do with the people in those ICU waiting rooms and the cooperation, care and compassion of those who are...waiting.
In this particular ICU waiting room there were several families, including my own. Well it's actually my wifes family, but after 36 years with them and the relationship we share, they ARE my family. In that room there are two phone extensions that seem to ring all the time. I called a couple of times for my wife, and if she was available she was called for and answered right away. If she wasn't readily available then someone went across the hall to see if she was in the other waiting room. As I was sitting there during one of my visits, people were constantly opening the door from the other waiting room asking if the So&So family was in there.
Then the question hit me! Does this happen everywhere? You know, places like New York, California, anywhere in an area where people don't make eye contact and say "hey how ya' doin' when they are walking down the street or going down the aisle in the grocery store; do they cooperate like our mountain people do in times like this? I was raised within 3 miles of where I'm sitting right now. I grew up in a little country store. When people in the community were experiencing such things as would land a family in an intensive care unit of that era, everyone helped as best they could. It wasn't taught; it was understood. Why? Because it was the right thing to do.
Here is what I know; times have changed and people have changed. A lot our culture and customs have evaporated, but taking care of each other, acquainted or not, during those bad times remains in our Hillbilly DNA. When it's bad and I mean really bad, I am thoroughly convinced that you'll answer that call from my family and my family will certainly do the same for yours.
Stay tuned and thanks
Randy
p.s. Sign the guest book while you're on the website and say howdy. Make comments or whatever. We won't spam you or sell your information to some list that will. It's just between us.
