The Emerald City

The Emerald City, a photo by []Aaroneous Monk[] on Flickr.

At the hospital where I work there is one room that glows with a green light due to a colored plastic filter that is always pulled down in front of the windows. It is truly inexplicable as to why this is so and I’m always caught off guard when once in a blue(green?) moon I’m consulted to see a patient who happens to be in that particular room. I’ve asked the nurses before what purpose it serves and no one seems to know.

Most recently I’ve been visiting with an elderly lady in that room who has a history of Schizophrenia, though you’d never know it from talking with her. I’ll call her “Glenda”. She has an angelic sweetness about her that is hard to explain. It may be that Glenda lives fully in the moment seeings how she cannot remember what happened 10 minutes prior to any one place in time. Any compliment you pay her (eg, I told her she’d been voted the sweetest patient in the hospital) immediately brings a beaming smile to her face and a, “Well God bless ya!”

Also in this room, though I have to say it is in several other rooms in the hospital as well, is a curtain that can be pulled across the entrance to the room proper to provide some privacy from prying eyes in the hall. In this particular room I can’t help but be reminded of a certain wizard from Oz. My temptation with troublesome patients who might be lucky enough to get the green room is to stand behind that curtain and yell “SILENCE!” as needed. But then the work day draws to a close and I’m reminded once again that there is truly no place like home.