Hello, Hello, Hello, Hello

 

The phone rings and the voice on the other side lets out a feeble hello.

So weak that it implies I'm in pain, please help me.

Another ring and this time the voice on the other side lets out a joyful hello.

So cheerful that it means I'm so happy you called.

One more ring the voice and the voice on the other side lets out a speedy hello.

So quick that it's as if no one has called in a while and the person doesn't want to miss this one.

Another couple of rings and just before it goes to the voice message a long – stretched - caught – in – a - yawn hello is uttered.

So stretched that you know that the person on the other side was fast asleep.

A few more calls and no more hellos.

Just a voice message asking you to leave a message after the tone.

You don´t leave one for you know the call cannot be returned

Hello?

Hello?

Hello?

Hello?

No one home.

No one on the other side.

No one to care about you.

No one to listen to you.

Hello?

Hello?

Hello?

Hello?

Please leave a message after the tone!

 

Written: August 11, 2021

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Suicide or Murder?

 

During the pandemic so many lives were lost; just in Brazil over 500,000. Tragic times. Even so, many people refuse to be vaccinated. In addition to that, many people live their lives as if everything has ended, the virus has been eradicated and one is free to live his or her life without caring about the people around them. No need to follow that World Health Organization protocols.

Carlos had been a nurse since he graduated from university. He really enjoyed his job and was pleased to be able to help people overcome their illnesses. The patients at the hospital where he presently worked were always happy to see him because every day he greeted them with a broad smile and a positive story. Little did they know that behind that bright smile and cheerful stories, there lived an extremely depressed man.

He hadn´t always been depressed. It just so happened that during the pandemic, besides losing so many patients per day and having to choose those who could be saved and those who were left to die due to lack of equipment and lack of medication, he opened a little box in his heart and mind. Nobody was overly worried about the hospital staff´s mental health although this was something that Carlos tried to bring up all the time at staff meetings. Deep down inside he was crying out for help. Nonetheless whenever he had to face a patient, he would always broaden that smile.

Tragically a year and a half after this battle against COVID and not being infected once, Carlos was found dead in the medication room. He had overdosed. They found his body on the floor and the injection resting next to his corpse. After thorough investigation, they discovered that the injection had been filled with extremely powerful anesthesia. Eventually Carlos did not suffer; he just went to sleep and never woke up.

On that night, his wife kept calling his cell phone and it went straight to the voice message which probably meant either two things: the phone was off, or his battery had perished. She could feel that something was wrong. Every night she would call Carlos to see how he was doing for she knew that he was suffering quietly. She knew her husband well.

The morning his body was found Carlos´s wife´s ex-husband, who happened to be a policeman drove to her home and said that he would drive her to the hospital because apparently Carlos was not feeling so well. You see she, her husband and her ex-husband had managed to become friends because of her first son. Carlos loved his stepson to pieces and her ex-husband really appreciated this.

Arriving at the hospital, the head nurse was there to give them the news, the policeman already knew what was coming. However, Carlos´s wife had no clue; she just wanted to see her husband. When she looked at the expression on her ex-husband´s face, she knew that Carlos was not alive any longer.

They took her to the location where the body had been found. They had to wait for the police to finish investigating the scene, in the meantime, the wife was handed her husband's belongings and she was hoping for a letter or a note to explain why he had taken his life. He had been going through some sad moments, but Carlos loved life itself. She looked through the package and noticed that his cell phone was missing.

Her ex-husband called Carlos´s cell which rang and rang until a man´s voice answered. Someone had stolen it. Now, this had really turned into a crime scene and needed to be investigated.

Currently, people believe that Carlos had in fact been killed.

Written: August 10, 2021 (Carlos is a fictitious name. This is based on a true story that happened in July to a friend´s husband. It is still under investigation, but the police are quite sure that there was a murder.)

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Bloody Baby Food

 

Being a grandparent is something that parents look forward to when they reach a certain age. Some people become grandparents at an early age therefore, they have more energy to play with their grandchildren from time to time. Children tend to energize those around them. Nonetheless, miraculously, if they have them at a later age, they still find energy to fulfill their responsibilities towards their grandkids - mainly spoiling them. They enjoy the unconditional love of their grandchildren without having to take on the responsibilities assigned to parents. It is believed that being a grandparent means being a parent twice but enjoying it much more. When you have your grandchildren over, you create unforgettable memories, tend to see them at their very best behavior and leave the concerns up to the parents.

Grandchildren in return love going to their grandparents´ because over at nana´s and grandpa´s you can eat whatever your heart desires, usually they have all your favorites; they tell you amazing stories; watch all your favorite shows and play with you. Grandparents go all out to make you happy. It is such a fruitful relationship.

It was not different for Martha. She had had her first grandchild when she was in her early 60´s. Her youngest grandchild was born when she was in her early 70´s – a total of 8. She still had so much energy to share her time with all her grandchildren. Martha prepared all those goodies: cookies, cake, ice cream and she would whip up anything they wanted if she hadn´t guessed beforehand what their little tummies desired on that day. Martha´s grandchildren thought that she had special powers because she knew when something was wrong, listened to what they had to say and if they were angry with their parents, she would tell them that parents acted that way because it was pure love.

Unfortunately, Martha had fallen down the stairs and broke her arm in three places, which meant all the goodies were put on hold. But, even so, she had her husband go to the bakery and buy cookies and cake. It was always a wonderful moment at the grandparents´.

Before her accident, Martha had agreed to take care of her youngest grandson who was close to 18 months of age. His mother would drop him off every morning and Martha would prepare his meals, however, with a broken arm this was not possible. The first Monday that he had been dropped off, his mother took store bought baby food so that Martha would not worry about the meals.

On the morning, just before noon, Martha´s husband warmed it up, sat his grandson in his highchair for grandma to feed him. She used the airplane trick or train trick for the child to eat. Mealtimes were always fun at granny´s. After the third spoonful, Martha was horrified. Blood was gushing out of her grandson´s mouth. She screamed for help. The baby yelled. Her husband rushed to the kitchen, he saw the blood and realized that his grandson was choking on something.

Because of all the screaming, the next-door neighbor who was a nurse, worked nights and was home at the time ran over and helped remove from the baby´s mouth whatever he was choking on while the grandfather called an ambulance.

Th baby had already lost consciousness by the time the nurse´s blood-filled fingers brought out the piece of glass that was causing the tragedy. Luckily, the nurse was able to revive the baby and put pressure on the child´s wounds. The nurse´s fingers had been cut also, nothing that a couple of stitches wouldn´t patch up.

The ambulance arrived and took all of them to the ER, for the grandma´s blood pressure was skyrocketing.

Written: August 6, 2021 (Based on a true story. The name Martha is fictitious. The case is still under investigation. The grandson is slowly recovering, and his mother has been preparing his baby food ever since. The grandma is still in a cast and trying recover emotionally.)

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Rock and Roll All Night - without the Rock

 

I wanna rock and roll all night and party every day is the song that I woke up singing in my head around 3:00 AM. Dear reader, now I am sure it is playing in yours too from the moment you read the title. Love this song by the American rock band Kiss formed in New York City in January 1973 by Paul Stanley, Gene Simmons, Ace Frehley, and Peter Criss. I used to love watching them on MTV, those outfits and all the remarkable makeup caught my attention- love at first sight. I just thought they were so hot and sexy. I can still sing the lyrics to most of their songs, just don´t ask me which one is my favorite, that´s a tough question. Perhaps my only regret was never having gone to one of their concerts. Enough daydreaming, back to the text now.

Rolling would not be the right word here; it is much more like tossing and turning. Science says that we need a specific hour load of sleep to reenergize and to be healthy, lately I have been losing sleep. There is a lot on my plate, especially health issues. Tossing also sounds like such a harsh word to use in this situation because of the pain I feel in my left shoulder which is due to bursitis and tendonitis. As a result, when I turn in bed it is done in slow motion, each movement is so accurately measured. But sometimes my calculations are off, and I let out a moan, groan or scream. No, the word tossing would not make sense here, nor would rolling.

For those of you do not know what Tendonitis or Bursitis is, I will try to do my best to explain. Here goes. Bursitis is an inflammation or irritation caused by too much friction between tendons and bones. Tendonitis is an inflammation or irritation of a tendon caused by a sudden injury or the repetition of a particular movement overtime. I blame the computer. I inculpate my cell phone. I incriminate the way that I sit or lie down on my left elbow to watch Netflix. All in all, I blame myself, my poor posture, my age, me, myself, and I. Maybe I should accuse the coronavirus, that way I will feel better.

The pain tends to lessen when the weather is warmer, if I do not use it that much, especially in repeated motions, a good way of loosening it up is stretching. Mind you, I have also been doing specific physiotherapy exercises for my left shoulder. The only downside is that now I tried to do more things with my right shoulder and that one is giving little signs of “hey, you're using me too much” and it is also starting to hurt a bit. This happens especially while sleeping. I sleep on my left side. When the pain is excruciating, I turn to the other side. Eventually, I wind up sleeping on my back, which sometimes also bothers me. There have been nights when I thought of sleeping in the easy chair instead of the bed. But then I think of my neck and for sure it will complain.

My physiotherapist says that from my MRIs, it is manageable. She was relieved when she saw that my tendons had not torn because then it would be more critical. It is funny how one of the movements that I cannot do is as if I were flapping my arms to fly. This makes me laugh out loud because this is not one of the repeated actions that I do on a daily basis. I do not walk around flapping my wings, oops, arms. Nonetheless I do need to straighten my muscles, especially in the upper body, of course not leaving out the lower body due to my leg issues. OK, so all in all I need to strengthen my whole body.

 I guess this issue of aches and pains is an ongoing process until it is my time to go. I always imagine that the day I wake up pain free, will be the day that I have left this world.  I do realize that there are painkillers that can be taken for these aches; however, they are dreadful to the liver. I am always talking to my doctors about leaving the heavy drugs for when the pain is over 15. You know when they ask you to evaluate your pain from 0 to 10, I have always wondered how they came up with this scale. I always kid with my doctors about this and sometimes say 13. At least, it makes them laugh. One doc told me that a 10 was when you wanted to bang your head on the wall. I have not reached that point yet.  In the meantime, I will continue with my hot water bottles, exercises, meditation, and other drugfree remedies.

But, I still wanna rock and roll our night and party every day!

 

Written: July 24, 2021

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