nablowrimo day 23 “As Death calls, we work…”

This is an ongoing series called, “Janitor MD” in which I talk about my experiences working in a hospital as a housekeeping supervisor. You can see previous entries in this series at this link.

Working in a hospital brings so much to the senses it can be overload at times. Discerning each and pushing those momentary moments into the back of the mind is the best way of dealing with all the things you see. I come home and I spend a few moments rewinding what I saw, smelled and felt in the halls of the hospital.

When you walk through the emergency department you can see every story playing out on the faces of those in the rooms. You hear the whispered mutters and the mechanical speeches of doctors and nurses as they try to and make it to the end of the day before the real rush will bust through the doors. There are moments of hilarity and smiles shared between knowing workers.

There are those times when you see a room dark and a sheet covering what was once a life. You know that the once beating heart has stilled. And you can only silently pray for whoever it was and move on to the duties that await you.

Some of the housekeepers I work with have said there are “spirits” in those rooms when death has just recently robbed the soul from body. They talk about a weight that pushes on them as they clean. Some tell you they don’t like it. I understand. When someone is alive, there is brightness about the room, a living light. When that is dimmed there is a certain confusion about where that person has gone as the body grows cold.

Some fall back on cultural explanations. Others religious. And still few refuse to dwell on that loss and push forward, ignoring whatever may have happened in that room and simply focus on cleaning the room to prepare for the next visitor.

It is that transition that signals the return of life, albeit an oddly morbid and temporary reminder. For a life to be saved, one may die. At times it can get too heady for me to wrap my mind around. I can only soldier on, cleaning rooms and knowing that life rumbles onwards on each of the floors. Babies are born into this cold world and lives are saved with hands of heroes every day in the halls of my hospital.

And sometimes, that’s what gets me through until the closing bell.

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National Blog Writing Month (nablowrimo) is underway! 22 bloggers from around the world are united in blogging once a day! You should read them and check ‘em out every day! See more details at the site here or look at the list below!