Five to Go

I've worked 40 years, minus the 2 years I was off after the accident and now I'm finally winding down. Five more shifts before my license expires.
My knee joints are worn down, my back is a wreck, my feet are ruined, so was it worth it?
I've been thinking about that a lot.

Without working this long, there's no telling what my marraige would have been like. I think Gary would have left me if I'd quit. I probably wouldn't have my second child. But then if he chose not to leave, his life would have been different and he may have done some things differently too. We'll never really know the answer to that.

For sure, I'd never have seen Cozumel, Alaska, Hawaii, Branson, San Francisco, Les Miserables, Grand Canyon, Pike's Peak, or even Gatlinburg. I always hope I won't develop Alzheimer's just so I won't forget my kids or these experiences.

Of course, without working I'd be a lot thinner since we couldn't afford food!

But most of all, what I wouldn't have done, was to come in personal contact with so many patients who turned out to be a very diverse lot. High class, low class, high profile, hayseeds, junkies, educated, mentally challenged, politicians, Christian, athiests, housewives, such a diversity in occupations I could never put in print (one husband of a patient even made his living selling glass to go in airplanes---and when I made the comment he must not do much business, he quickly gave me a lecture on what a competitive field this is). I don't know any other occupation I would have had the opportunity to sit down and converse with such a variety of people. (Oh sure, telephone operators and bank tellers meet all these same people but they're not sitting talking to them from 2 to 8 hours while waiting on a birth to occur).

Maybe it was worth it.

Dear Jesus please don't let me get Alzheimer's.