How Can You Mend This Purple Heart by T. L. Gould

Author:T. L. Gould
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781480489042
Publisher: Charlie Foxtrot Books

Life Goes On

FOR THE NEXT few weeks, time drifted slowly and methodically on Ward 2B. Bodies gradually responded to the nurturing and coaxing of the healing staff. Those who had reached full ambulatory status had been transferred to the rehab wards, and the beds on 2B had been shuffled to keep the new arrivals closest to the center of the ward and the nurses’ station. The rearrangement put Ski, Earl Ray, Moose, Bobby Mac, Roger, and me at the south end of the ward, closest to the solarium.

Time not spent in physical therapy or the mess hall was filled with assigned chores and helping those who were now the new bed-ridden. We would refill water pitchers, empty urinals and bedpans, deliver a cold wash rag, change a pillow case, open a milk carton, or give our time in any small way. For Earl Ray, Ski, Moose, Bobby Mac, and Roger, it was a way to give a fellow Marine some comfort and friendship. For me, it was one more way to mask the guilt and to feel like I belonged.

We grew closer together as a group, but we would never grow close as individuals. The social nature of the military demanded transient and temporary friendship, and the instinctive human understanding in each of us dictated that someday, one by one, we would part ways. It was an ever-mindful presence that is borne from the absolute certainty of the temporary nature of military life.

We kept an even greater distance between ourselves and the new arrivals. Most of us would be out of the hospital by the time these guys would even be thinking of a wheelchair. They would form their own transient groups and follow us in time through this endless procession.

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