where to begin......!

There has been a lot that's happen but I didn't have the computer to put it in. As I said before, I work at a hospital reading EKGs as a cardiac monitor tech. We have a total of 90 patients to watch & so, 2 people watch them . There is, of course, times you can talk to your partner who is watching patients with you. One of the people I watched EKGs with is Hani.

Hani was a Muslim. We went to an Arabic bar one time with2 other tele techs (a male& female) & 2 nurses. We had a blast. In fact one of the nurses (Trudy in previous posts) I really liked but decided not to date later. He was a great guy. Hani was not your stereotypical Muslim. He was very much against Al Queda & the jihad. He thought that there needed to be more understanding and dialogue rather than fighting. He spoke about things that united the rest of us not what divided us.

In early August, he was to fly to Jordan and get married. He never made it. He went to his own bachelor party in a rough neighborhood and then was shot to death as he left a place called Sky Box in Harvey, IL. He was only 29. He had a sick mother who he lived with and helped take care of . He has a heartbroken fiancee' back in Jordan.

Many people at the hospital cried. I told people who came to the telemetry room where I work that even though I am divorced, I still consider my wedding back in '93 and the subsequent honeymoon to be the happiest days of my life. We knew with such an outpouring of grief on our floor that there needed to be a memorial service at the chapel of the hospital. Not very many people were able to go the Muslim funeral (not sure what they call funerals) I helped arrange the hospial service, I gave a reading and I gave 1 of 2 eulogies. I will put the eulogy as a post later.

2 weeks later another tragedy struck our floor. Danielle, a nurse on night shift, was 8 months pregnant with her 7th child. AFter starting a 3-month leave of absence @ the hospital, she called her co-worker and told her that something was wrong with her. Her friend told her to come to the hospital. The placenta ruptured from the uterine wall. Minutes after arriving at the hospital her 8 month fetus, already 9 lbs., was dead. The uterine wall was bleeding so badly that she needed emergency hysterectomy and then went into kidney failure. Hours later she died from massive hemorrage. She left behind 6 kids with the oldest only being 16 and the younges not yet 2.

THere's more that has been happening. The next posts are about: the eulogy I gave, becoming president of our condo complex, leaving the law firm-a place I complained a lot of and my new full time job.

More to come......