Eavesdropping in the Waiting Room

Yesterday I spent most of the day and most of the evening at the hospital. My sister was having an operation for a torn rotator cup.

At one time I sat in the wrong waiting room for over an hour, before I figured, out , by overhearing conversations, that I was sitting in cardio-operating waiting room. Too many darn waiting rooms!

While sitting in the wrong waiting room I noticed a big family of middle aged people who were all siblings or spouse in-laws. They looked kind of country, or unpretentious and down-to-earth kind of people. They were 12 of them in all. There was a man sitting with them that was in a suit that was plainly not one of them. All of them were telling the man that they were all neighbors, living on land handed down to them.

The more they talked the more I realized they might be non-pretentious but not so much dirt poor. One spoke her son at Yale – another told of her son playing football for Vanderbilt, and a daughter who played basketball for the University of Georgia. They are the new salt of the earth.

They were all telling the man the man that wasn’t one them antics of them growing up, about the guy being operated on. I think by what they were saying they all live at the foot of a mountain near Cartersville, Ga.

I finally figured out the outside asking the questions was a preacher. He was there getting material in case the guy being operated croaked on the operating table.

Some of their stories were funny. And some was shocking. One of them told a funny story about one of their kids of the next generation was hiding drugs from the police and some funny incidents where the law was fooled by his cleverness. At the punch lines they would all laugh – all but the preacher that is.

After that drug and law little humorous story the preacher asked them to pray with him and they all bowed and he prayed.

Which brought up an interesting issue with me. I was not part of them, but I was sitting close. Should I take off my ball cap and bow my head or should I leave my hat on and continue to read? I chose to take off my hat at bow my head.

After the prayer the preacher got the hell out of there.

After the preacher left they all burst out laughing. They kept reliving telling the preacher of shocking incidents…. Saying, “Did you see the expression on his face when I told him…” And on and on. One lady close to me, said she kept her jacket over her book because she didn’t want to see the title, saying that would shock him.

They had a good laugh at the preacher’s expense.

Now, back to the hospital for another full day.