During Gumpy's fight with pancreatic cancer, I got pretty use to a phone call from Ema or my mom telling me that the old boy was back in the hospital. Many times, we ended up at Sparrow Hospital in Lansing, MI. The hospital has changed a lot in the 36 years since I was born there and I became quite familiar with the newest addition to the facility.
Our last trip there was a pretty tramatic evening. My mom, my Aunt Mary, Ema, Gladys and I were all there with him as he slipped in and out of consciousness. The hospital staff stabilized his condition and began the process of admitting him at least over night. As a family that night, we decided that there would be no more extreme measures to keep Gumpy alive. It was the evening we raised the white flag on his valient effort.
By the time he was stabilized and the hospital could find a room for him upstairs, it was after 2am. Mary had driven Ema home while the rest of us stayed to make sure he was admitted properly. All of us had been at work or school all day, so we were pretty exhausted.
His nurse that evening was a very sweet women in her mid 30's. She was very polite when asking questions about Gumpy's medical condition. Part of her routine was to check for bed sores, so she had him roll on his side. Then she exclaimed, "You have a really nice butt!"
I thought we would die of laugher. This poor woman was mortified because she was really just surprised not to see bed sores. She didn't expect uproarious laughter from the peanut gallery.
She stepped out of the room and I began to explain to Gumpy why we were laughing so hard. When his nurse came back to ask questions, he asked her to come closer to him. He reached up, gave her a peck on the cheek and thanked her. Our howls started again. I thought she would die of embarrassment. But that was Gumpy. Always appreciating a little harmless flirting!
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