Week 6:
A man with a luggage bag quietly walked up to Kelly, the receptionist, and asked to check himself in. She asked why, and he said he had been having suicidal thoughts. “I kept wanting to step in front of a train, on those train tracks near here.” Kelly said some motivational niceties, but the man replied in a low threatening tone, “We all die. I might as well die how I want to.” I pretended I couldn’t hear him and kept taking notes from my history book. After the man left, Kelly turned to me with a can-you-believe-that look.

Week 7:
Visitors keep coming for the same room. It’s for a man who’s a critical case, and his relatives are gathering with the worst case scenario in mind. A woman and two men, the man’s sister, brother, and nephew, couldn’t go to the room because too many people were already in it. When some of the relatives came out, the woman wanted to go in, then she changed her mind and decided she couldn’t handle it. She started crying, and the nephew and brother said they’ll check out the situation in her brother’s room. When they came back to report to her, she cried harder. they stayed in the waiting room. After twenty minutes, a nurse came and spoke to them. The woman cried out and started sobbing, but this time she was smiling. She hugged her brother and nephew hard saying, “He’s going to be okay. He’s going to be okay.”

Week 8:
BAM! The day I’ve been expecting has arrived. A guy came in with his thumb on ice wrapped in napkins. He’d been using a chainsaw and it got cut off. His hand was wrapped in tissues, and there was a woman next to him. She didn’t look too concerned though, neither of them did. “I always knew he was going to hurt himself bad one day,” she said. “It’s like he’s asking to get hurt.”  She looked at Kelly, and in a ‘between-us-girls voice said, “Men are dumb, ya know?” The guy pretended to be offended. “Hey, not all guys are dumb, only some, and only on certain days.” While they waited for the nurse, the woman held his non-chainsawed hand. I don’t know whether to be worried or amused.

Week 9:
Christa, another receptionist was sitting next to me today. She was calling a patient to check up on her information. The patient did not understand English very well so Christa asked me if I knew Spanish. I learned some from school, so Christa handed the phone over to me and I asked the patient about her address, what made her come to the hospital, her workplace, and other things. After I was finished, Christa called to the receptionists in the back saying,“We’ve got a star volunteer right here!” True, it was one of my shinier moments.

Week 10:
The highlight of my hospital volunteering career. A guy came in here today to check himself in for depression. Wait please before you judge me as a horrible person. His official legal name that was even on his driver’s licence: “Super Star.” Should I be impressed? I think I am.

Week 11:
There was a middle aged couple who came in. The man said that his wife was here for a procedure and that the doctor had already called ahead of time.I was put-off by his secretiveness with the word “procedure”. Their doctor was waiting in Labor and Delivery so I led the couple up to Labor and Delivery on the fourth floor. The couple straggled behind me, and I let the distance grow to give them privacy. The woman had a slightly puffy red face in the elevator, and her husband hugged her. When we reached the fourth floor, their doctor was waiting for them. I started walking back, but then the doctor stopped me. “Wait, you need to take them back to ER. Just let me talk to you guys aside for a second.” I backed off and gave them privacy. I pulled out my phone and started checking my notifications. But I could still hear some of the doctor. “In a normal pregnancy...artificially engineered...not viable…” A could hear the woman’s weak voice, sad, so sad. “There’s no possibility whatsoever?” On the way down in the elevator, the man was hugging the woman, who was breathing deeply and trying not to cry.They were talking quietly. I heard her say, “How are we going to tell them?” We went back silently and the couple registered officially at ER and waited their turn. I tried not to stare too much. It was hard when all I could think about was the conversation that I’d heard.