St. Joseph's Hospital

When Uncle Steve and Oma 

took us to St. Joseph’s to see Dad 

they didn’t wear seatbelts. “Don’t you

know if we crashed you guys would die,” I said 

and my sister told me to shut up.   

Somehow it had snowed in the parking garage 

and when my sister got out of the car she slipped 

and hit her head. Oma picked her up and

took her into the lobby. Uncle Steve lit up a cigarette 

and I asked him how old he was when 

he started and he said 12.   

There was a pretty hot nurse on the elevator 

to the ward where dad was and after she got off

Uncle Steve said I was checking her out and that 

made my sister laugh so I punched her  in the arm and then

Uncle Steve told me to not feel bad  because he was checking 

her out too and then Oma grabbed my sister and me and  started to 

teach us how to pray us the Rosary.   

Oma was mixing up the Glory-Bes with the Hail Marys

but I didn’t say a word because everything on the ward 

was real quiet and I was scared that If I spoke too loud the

patients would wake up and get heart-attacks. A man with 

yellow legs and green skin rolled by on a wheelchair and I 

plugged my nose. Oma slapped my hand away and said: 

“Germans only pick flowers.”   

Mom was standing outside dad’s room with her 

thumb in a copy of the Women’s Devotional Bible. 

We ran up to her because we hadn’t seen her for a few days 

and asked if we could see dad but my mom said we couldn’t 

because he was sleeping. She gave Uncle Steve ten bucks and 

told him to take us to the cafeteria to get sodas. 

We started walking and Uncle Steve started telling us 

the story about how he once tricked mom into eating 

an Oreo filled with toothpaste.  I had heard it before so 

I turned my head around because I wanted to see if I could 

catch a glimpse of Dad but Mom and Oma had already went

inside and the shades were drawn and all I could see were 

shadows and the T.V flickering.   

“There’s your girlfriend,” said Uncle Steve as he pointed to 

the nurse who had been on the elevator before and I leaned forward 

to give him a good fist to the nads but he picked me up and carried 

me on his shoulders as my sister jumped at my legs and stuck her 

tongue out all the way to the cafeteria.