The boy next room

There is this boy, named Andy. He is 14 yrs old. I find out that he has been in and out of hospital for the last four years. I am terrified. Fours years of treatment… Goodness this sounds awful amount of time. The doctors said Melanie will be given the standard four month-course chemotherapy treatment.

Four months vs four years. I am thinking, shall I be grateful, shall I worry or what? I see Andy’s mother outside the ward, smoking when ever she gets a chance. First we criticise her about smoking then her unfriendliness.

When the time passes and we spend enough time in the hospital we come to realise that everything the parents do is just normal. You can be smoking, you have the right to be unfriendly or do whatever you want. There is just too much to take in, so many things to do and think. I am ashamed that I dared to criticise this poor women. I have been experiencing all this only a few months and she has been there for four years. I now know and understand that every behaviour is normal.

Andy goes around each room and cheers the little ones up. He makes jokes to Melanie about the NG tube. It is amazing to see how these little minds can be so strong.