Was watching Mad Men (season one) with P tonight. One of the characters (spoiler alert!!) suffers a heart attack, and the other characters are talking about the grey-ashy colour of his skin. This triggered a memory for me.
When we were living in the "Sakaw House", my dad suffered an angina attack. I got on the phone with emergency services, while my brother sat with him on the stairs, by the door. I believe this was before we had a cordless phone, as I distinctly remember being in the other room and having to call-out questions to my brother. One of the questions the operator asked me was "What is his colour like?". So, I repeated the question to my brother, as I could not see my dad's face (his back was to me).
In my mind, I can clearly see the expression on my brother's face. I'm not sure if it was the fear and stress of not knowing how to help my dad, but he looked at me with this mild confusion, shrugged his shoulders and said in all seriousness: "His colour? He's brown..." (I can still hear him say it..and it still makes me shake my own head and chuckle).
I knew this answer wouldn't impress the emergency operator, so I went with the appropriate answer of 'he's pale and grey' instead.
Fortunately, the ambulance came quickly and whisked my dad off to the Grey Nuns Hospital. Despite all the 'cut-backs' in health care, we were very happy with the service and care my father received.
"...he's brown..."....cracks me up every time.
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