As I mind my own business walking around the local supermarket someone I've never met starts a conversation.
"You don't remember me, do you?"
I get nervous when I hear things like that. She'd walked past me down one of the aisles a few minutes earlier, and gave me a funny look that I just shrugged off. Her daughter, probably three-years-old, was sat in the half-trolley, half-car, trying to grab anything off the shelves that took her fancy. I recognised the constant struggle with a toddler, and was pleased that I no longer have to deal with it. Having said that, bigger kids, sometimes bigger problems.
"Sorry, I don't remember."
"Well, do you remember my daughter?"
"Also not. I'm sorry. " I'd put the idea that she could have been a patient out my head, as I live and shop some distance from where I work.
"Well, really, you should remember her more than me, as you met her first!"
"Pardon?"
"Well," she said, clearly enjoying the exchange as much as I was confused by it, "this is Aleesha, and you and your colleague brought her into the world!"
A few seconds passed as I regained my composure.
"Oh! Wow! I've never met anyone I've delivered before!"
"Well, now you have!" She turns to Aleesha, just as the toddler's about to take some chocolate from the shelf.
"What do you say to the nice man?"
Aleesha quickly hides the chocolate in her car, looks sheepishly down at her feet and mumbles a barely audible word.
"Sorry..." she says, as mum and a very strange man burst into hysterics.
5 comments:
Iris, at two, was playing picture Bingo with a group of my DD clients. She had three in a row and so I asked her, “What do you say?” Her response came immediately, "Thank you!” Even the clients understood why I was laughing.
That is great! My partner and I were just saying today, as we passed by a house we delivered our last baby at in the driveway, she would never remember us but we forever will remember her and her baby!
That is so awesome! Last month, I was in the incredibly long line at the post office and the woman behind me asks, "Do you still work with the fire department?" I wondered how she knew me but realized I was wearing a jacket with an FD patch. Then she said, "You probably don't remember me but you took care of her, my daughter" and pointed to the young woman next to her. I looked at her and asked if her address was _________ and she said, "yes! How did you remember?" I told her I will never forget that call and I told the young woman that she was in my prayers for months after that night. She thanked me and told me how she is finishing up her master's degree and she is doing well. I was sooo touched!
Bet you walked on air for the rest of the day!
I will never forget the dr that delivered my son, by emergency c/s. He just had this air of total calm about him- I didn't know untill after the event that I had a pph. He probably saved my life whilst I was awake and totally oblivious to it.
Must be amazing to go to work and actually bring a new life in the world.
Minty
Sometimes we forget that even the out of the ordinary calls, are still just calls to us, and part of a routine.
To our patients, it can be the moment their life changes forever, for better or for worse. It only makes it even more important to leave a lasting impression, and make sure it's a good one!
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