Saturday, June 14, 2008

The Nut Ward

Yes I called it that, and I have every right to, considering that I have been confined there more than once. The last time was 17 days of confusion, hilarity and damn good times on the Fourth Floor Psychiatric ward of Denver Health Medical Center. I met some kickass people there, like George Welch. An old Hell's Angel biker from Sacramento, he checked in after being cracked out and not sleeping for more than a week. He was short and thin, with long hair and a Fu Manchu mustache that only old bikers can pull off. He was a con, and would wrench open the newspaper machine and steal a paper each time we went outside to smoke. And my best friend there, Pretty Girl who had the impulse to draw her own blood and shoot it out into the toilet, than draw it again, shoot it again. Then there was Noelle, who thought the devil was trying to eat her, and she so fat that she couldn't run to get away from him, a man named, and I shit you not, Robert Robert Roberts, we all just called him Bob. Or Sarge, who was a lean hard Vietnam vet who barely spoke until I went up to him one day and said I was proud of him. I had a special spot in my heart for him cause he'd lost a wife and very young kids in a wreck and then he had nobody so he went to live in his truck. Or Darren, who to this day more than a year later, is still sitting outside the public library next to Centennial Park for want of a place to go.
Or the artist Troi, who drew a landscape of mountains and pine trees on my foot with a blue ink pen, complete with flowers on each of my toes....One day I'm gonna send out invites to all the crazies I met on the ward and we'll all just show up one day and check back in...and have the time of our lives, all over again.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Everyone is someone. This is a prime example of why I find you so interesting! By the way..I've been there too! The one thing that stuck with me the most was one of the workers referred to me as one of them. (not like her) Man was she right! The truth is that nobody knows a person until you except their personality.

Anonymous said...

I think your awesome. :p

I really like what you say here. Shows kindness? Something like that.

I can't really explain, but this story really touches me and I'll probably read it again... and again... and again...

So yeah. Thanks for typing.

Kirk said...

nice story! reminds me of this issue of Vice magazine from a while ago.

http://www.viceland.com/int/v12n2/htdocs/index.php