Patients in Purgatory by William T. Delamar

Author:William T. Delamar
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Open Road Media
Published: 2023-09-15T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter Thirty-nine

Bishop Markham and Reverend Darner sat in the Bishop’s office in Lower Manhattan.

They had just received Ox’s monthly report.

“I think we made the right choice in calling Christie to the Church of the One Soul,” said the bishop.

“No question about it,” said Reverend Darner. “This nursing home watch program might be something we could recommend to some of our other churches.”

“I think we should consider it a trial program for all of our churches in Pennsylvania.” The bishop looked out of the large window at skyscrapers and clouds. “If it works well in Pennsylvania, why not the entire East Coast?”

“If nursing homes are that bad in the Philadelphia region, it stands to reason it could be the same in the rest of Pennsylvania.”

“And the East Coast.”

The bishop leaned back in his chair. “And the whole country. This may have national importance.”

Ann Cooke tapped on Boyd Silver’s door.

He opened the door. “Yes, Miss Cooke?”

“Mr. Silver, I’m sorry to bother you, but some strange things are happening on the second floor. The aide is giving shots of morphine to all the patients. It’s like a morgue up there.”

“Miss Cooke, I’m sure there’s a good reason for whatever the aide is doing.”

“Mr. Silver, please forgive me if I seem to be overstepping, but it might help if you went up there occasionally.”

“Miss Cooke, some of our patients are at a point in their lives when the main thing is to relieve them of pain. That’s probably the situation with the patients on the second floor. My walking through there would not change things, but feel free to walk through if it makes you feel better.”

“Lord knows I have my hands full taking care of my patients. I’m one person taking care of twenty-two patients, an impossible workload, but I get it done. I just worry about the other patients. If the administrator made rounds, I think it would tell the others they need to care. I’m sorry. That’s all I came to say.”

Ann turned to leave. Silver reached out and held her by the arm.

“Miss Cooke, the nursing home business is complicated. It’s not everybody’s cup of tea. You do a good job on the first floor. Let me take care of business.”

As Ann stalked out of the office, Willis Taylor saw her.

“Was old Trap Jaw giving you the business?”

“No, old Trap Jaw said I should mind my own business, and that’s just what I’m going to do. He might prefer I didn’t.”

Ox met with the Church Advisory Committee, chaired by Elmer. They went through the usual business, starting with the treasurer’s report by Maxwell Katz. He concluded with the statement, “Adding our CDs, savings, money markets, investment portfolio and cash on hand, we have a little over a million, six hundred thousand dollars. There’s been talk of us setting up our own nursing and retirement center in the mansion. I think we should give it serious consideration.”

“I would dearly love to see that happen,” said Ox. “I keep thinking of the on-going costs.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.