This is story #2 in the series “Tales of a Student Nurse”.
Prologue, Tales of a Student Nurse
Tales of a Student Nurse is a collection of stories based on my memories of experiences I had while training to become a Registered Nurse. It was a three year program, from 1967-1970, at the Metropolitan General Hospital School of Nursing in Windsor, Ontario. Until 1974, the majority of Ontario nurses were trained in Schools of Nursing situated in general hospitals. Each of these Schools required students to live in residence for two of the three years it took to complete the program. The stories are true, the characters existed, but all names have been changed except for mine. I hope the reader will enjoy my memories in whatever order they are read, but I recommend starting with Tale # 1 and following through in sequence, as some of the stories build on previous ones.
2. Tales of a Student Nurse: The Room Mate
Read the first Tales of a Student Nurse story!
The next morning, Friday, found me awake at 6:45 calculating how I could get up and out of the room without rousing Annie. She’d been snoring through the night, but lying on her right side now, the sounds of her breathing had been reduced to a light wheeze. The Noxzema face cream had dried into a thick paste on her cheek and forehead. Wide cracks disrupted the even surface of the white paste the way nature alters mud in a field after it’s been baked by the hot sun. On her desk were the scattered remnants of last night’s snack: a thin layer of cracker crumbs, a wadded up paper napkin, a plastic water glass and five or six orange seeds. Thankfully, the orange peels and the empty sardine tin were missing, but our room still harboured a faint scent of last night’s feast. My stomach lurched at the memory of my unwelcome initiation into Annie’s world.
When I’d returned to the room last night, Annie hadn’t been there. What a stroke of good fortune, I thought. Quickly, I had laid out the morning’s toiletries, hair brush, towel, face cloth and fresh clothes before turning out the lights and going to bed. Feigning deep slumber when she did get back a few minutes later, I was able to avoid any conversation or exchange of forced pleasantries with her. I’d been determined that my luck was to hold into the next morning.
Peeling my covers back ever so quietly, I sat up at the side of the bed, then stood up and tip-toed to the chair where I’d placed my morning essentials. Oh so softly, my feet padded to the bedroom door. Wrapping my palm gently around the door knob, I turned it and pulled the door open without a sound, stepped out into the hall, silently closed the door again and hurried down to the bathroom/showers. The smiling faces of Kim, Sandy and Karen greeted me asking how I’d slept and barely masking their snickering, they asked if Annie had saved any snacks for me. Their teasing was not malicious: it was said with humour and possibly a tint of sympathy. I felt like I was one of the gang, and so grateful for that.
