AN ITALIAN IN HOSPITAL

Mr. Gattino should have surgery at his carotide on thursday morning 8 am. At 11.30 I called the intensive care unit to ask if everything went OK. A friendly voice informed me that they had no Mr. Gattino in their unit. I hang up and asked myself where could he be ? Did he escape from the hospital ? I was in my painting class and one of my classmates told me in a recomforting voice that her husband too had disappeared and they had found him in the parc sitting on a bank. But he had had a brain tumor and mine had disappeared with a brain in function. At least I supposed so. The girls told me not to worry and that probably he is still in the surgery room.

When I called the intensive care an hour later he was there and everything had gone well, the friendly voice even gave me a direct phone nr. I was a little puzzled that he had a phone at his disposal, in my imagination he was laying on a bed fully cabled from top to bottom. I called this nr in the afternoon and to my surprise he answered himself with a completely normal voice and told me that he was feeling well and that he had to stay there for 24 h.

When I called the next day he still was in intensive care. I couldn't even start to worry when he started to complain and pester against the whole medical world that he was still there after 24 h and that it was sooo boring ! He wanted to go up to his room. I told him to be patient and calm down. Never say that to somebody who has never been patient in his life ! He even suspected that somebody else had taken his room and that's why he couldn't leave intensive care ! After this conversation I knew that he was feeling very well !

An hour later I went to the hospital to be there when they brought him up to the 4th floor to his room. While I was reading a magazine in a little waiting room, I suddenly heard noices and then voices or rather only one voice, the opera voice of Mr. Gattino ! and then out of the elevator came the King or rather the Godfather sitting like a pasha in a wheelchair, connected with cables to a support with bottles and surrounded by 3 laughing nurses. The one who pushed the wheelchair pointed on him and said that he had complained that much that finally they gave up and were happy to get rid of him.

He looked better than before surgery and his only wish was to get settled in his room. I should have taken pictures. 2 nurses made the bed, the 3rd brought his personal belongings and all this while he was talking and laughing and making jokes. As he always talks with his hands, I anxiously watched the bottle and the cables but surprisingly they didn't get mingled up. If I had had fears to find a half dead husband, it really wasn't the case. When the nurses had left, he stood up and wanted to put his things himself in the closet, to know exactly where each thing was (instead of telling me where to put it) until I got angry because the bottles wiggled and the cables waggled and I was afraid that the whole thing would fall down.

Finally he was in his bed and waited eagerly that I leave, he wanted to watch Indiana Jones n° X on his portable DVD player.

I left exhausted ! Italians have the marvellous talent to make a comedy out of a tragedy !

SHOW & TELL - Love story

More participants are here at Kelly's

Sometimes you are looking for something and you find something you completely forgot about. This happened to me this week. I found an old photo album which I have gotten together with two bibles when my American uncle died, my aunt had died 4 years before. It had been sent to me by the church, who inherited the house instead of me, they had convinced my 94 year old uncle to change his testament and I could nothing do about it. You can imagine that it left a bitter taste in my mouth.

But this has nothing to do with the love story between my aunt, my mother's sister living in Germany and my uncle who was an American from Madison/Wisc.

I think this was already the beginning of scrapbooking in the 50th !
Isn't it sweet how she presented her decision to follow him to the States ?



they wrote each other letters



.... and she was waiting (she did all the little drawings herself)


This is the original telegram he had sent her for his arrival in Frankfurt (Germany)



and then they got married in Germany. As soon as she had gotten all official papers she took the plane and landed in New York. Ellis Island had just closed since a week ! she was lucky !


and then follow the pictures of their honeymoon to the Niagara falls

I also found this interesting list where my uncle had listed the names and birth dates from his grandparents and from my aunt's


That's when he discovered that they came both from the same family ! Their grandfathers were brothers ! His grandfather had immigrated to the States in 1830.


Believe it or not but this service book was published in Wisconsin in 1902 still in German writing style !



When you open it there is this old Edelweiss on the first page which had been glued there by a certain Mrs. Ludwig Westhphal. Probably his mother.



and here you can read "Evang. Lutherischen Synode,
Wisconsin u.a. Staaten, Milwaukee, Wisc. Northwestern Publishing House 1901

THURSDAY THIRTEEN - Doctor Quotes

more participants here at New Thursday 13

13 Doctor Quotes

1.The patient had waffles for breakfast and anorexia for lunch.

2.The baby was delivered, the cord clamped and cut and handed to the paediatrician, who breathed and cried immediately.

3. The patient was in his usual state of good health until his airplane ran out of gas and crashed.

4. I saw your patient today, who is still under our car for physical therapy.

5. The patient lives at home with his mother, father, and pet turtle, who is presently enrolled in day care three times a week.

6. Exam of genitalia was completely negative except for the right foot.

7. While in the emergency room, she was examined, X-rated and sent home.

8. The skin was moist and dry.

9. The lab test indicated abnormal lover function.

10. Coming from London, this man has no children.

11. Patient was alert and unresponsive.

12. When she fainted, her eyes rolled around the room.

13. Rectal exam revealed a normal size thyroid

Mr. Gattino has a surgery on his carotide this morning. For me the best help to handle stress is humour !

WORDLESS WEDNESDAY

MY WORLD - The Waterloo winterly battlefield

More participants here

Living in this historical place where Napoleon lost his battle, I wanted to see how the Lion looks like when it has snowed (which doesn't happen very often in Belgium)



The lion hill in white



too cold for a picnic





views over the battle fields



in our street it's getting dirty,






the snow melts. We just had one week of snow.

FUN MONDAY - My entrance

Odd Shots and Macro Monday are here



Another chance ranch Julie, is our host this week and had a very good idea !

Instead of standing in our front door and taking a photo of what we see outside, an assignment what we have done in the past, now let's turn around and take on of the inside.





When I open the door, you will arrive in our entrance "hall" (as they call it here in Belgium) and you will have a straight look into our kitchen, because in our house no doors are closed except the door of the bathroom.

The second picture shows my cat collection.



here is the look to the left side where you find the door to the living room



and here to the right a door leading to Mr. Gattino's office and one door later to the bathroom and bedrooms.

Now you can come in !

PS. Some readers want to have a closer look on my cat collection in the vitrine, it's here

WEEKLY WINNERS - Buddah exposition

More participants here at Sarcastic Mom Weekly winners

Last week I visted an exposition of Buddhist art in Brussels.The buddahs exposed were mostly from Korea, India and Japan. They look completely different to those I am more used to : the fat smiling chinese buddah.

Of course it was strictly forbidden to take any photos. But as usual I am a paparazzi trainee and who would think that an old lady doesn't respect rules ? I am very proud of the results because it is not easy to smile at a buddah and at the same time hope that I shot in the right direction with my camera hidden in my sleeve.


At the entrance we were greated by this enormous buddah




These are rather small once


Risking my life I took this picture of a dragon, because there are some dragon friends amongst my blogfriends ! (Melli for example !)



These figures weren't buddahs I think it represented souls


This statue is very old I have always loved statues of these dog guardians



At the end of the exposition a vietnamese artist had exposed his work ! Rice bowls !