Women are so connected to their need to feel good and look good that a critical element of women's health care is beauty. If we were serious about healing women, especially mental health, then all departments of hospitals would have beauty, haircare, yoga and dance fitness elements. We are not machines for tinkering with. We need holistic care.
The hospital stood as monument to the best of humane humanity.
The hospital took care of the soul and the body that is its palace.
There is a quiet kind of "cheerful," the soft kind that comes as a quiet river on a sunny day. It is a way of being that allows others a positive space to open up into, a space that is ready to support their emotions and needs. There is of course a time and place for the loud kind of cheerful, yet here in the hospital it can have the effect of closing people down - after all it is challenging to express sad feelings to a person who appears so far removed from those emotions.
The sanctity of the patient, their humanity, is what this hospital strives to uphold - especially in challenging times.
In the pandemic we turned hotels into pop-up hospitals, "deputising" volunteers in as our staff.
"In this hospital bed my medicine is my memories, the good times we shared. My peace is our love, that which connects us always. You, the one who holds my heart as if it were a precious gem; you are my doctor. So though I am here, you are still the one who keeps me strong."