Sharing Personal Experiences
about Disability and Homecare

Without a doubt Sam was the most memorable character that I met during my father’s last hospital stay. I found it rather peculiar that no one came to visit him the entire time he was hospitalized. A cheerful chap full of stories, he could go on for hours round the clock, and he kept the patients and nurses busy non-stop with his requests or his recounting of his life's adventures.

At 3:00 a.m. one night I overheard him conducting a dialogue with himself. It was the most touching conversation I had ever heard:

“Why can’t I do anything right here at the hospital? It seems that the nurses find something wrong with everything I do.”

Pause…

“But I know I am a good person. I need you here to help me do things right the way you always did.”

Pause…

“I’ll try to behave the way they want, but you always seemed to know how to point me in the right direction.”

A few days later I learned that Sam's wife had died only three months before.