Several weeks ago in this space I mentioned people who have gone the extra mile to make my illness easier to cope with. I didn’t mention Winyah Hospice. That’s like writing about Christmas and leaving out Santa Claus. They have all gone the extra mile than what their job calls for. Dr. Troy Gamble is in charge, but good leaders have good people, the ones the patients talk to each week. These people deserve recognition for a job above and beyond.
It was Michelle Coward from Coward whose idea it was to put together a scrapbook of my columns that have appeared in the Kingstree and Florence newspapers: more than 3,000 columns, the good, the bad and the ugly. Columns, unlike wine, don’t get better with age. They are like playing old scratchy phonograph records that never made anybody’s hit parade.
Everyone in the office has helped: Stacy Moore from Lake City, Dewayne Lyerly from Johnsonville, Adair Calcutt from Pamplico, Fran Hayes from Florence who brings us something sweet each time she comes, and a host of volunteers. Dr. Gamble reminds them not to read the columns unless they have been vaccinated against BS.
The room looks like the control room of the Starship Enterprise. It’s cold enough to kill hogs. I lie on my back and stare at the ceiling. The doctor wears a mask; maybe he is gonna steal my charisma? I’m a patient at Carolinas Hospital System, where they will replace the tube so I can enjoy five cans of Ensure, the nutrition in a can that tastes like a garlic and okra margarita. Dr. Cahy Hindman, a
Clemson man, was my surgeon. So, naturally, his skills were impeccable. He knew the hipbone was connected to the thighbone. A Gamecock doctor would have been telling me, “wait til next year.” Do you have any idea how many generations of Gamecock fans have been waiting for next year?
Chuck saw the following on the Internet: Gamecock fans have the arrogance of Alabama fans and a trophy case like Vanderbilt’s.
Dr. Hindman interned in Greeleyville, where all the bedpans are Pepsi bottles and the only wonder drug is ExLax. Dr. Dorn Smith showed up to offer his condolences to Dr. Hindman, reminding him that Charlie Walker had only three working parts and they were all interchangeable.
Adair Calcutt had been waiting at the hospital when Peggy and I arrived and stayed with Peggy through most of the procedure. Adair has been mine and Peggy’s rock throughout this ordeal. So, I got a new tube and I know there are a thousand cans of Ensure out there that can’t wait to flow through that tube. I look forward to it the way a tomcat looks forward to a vasectomy.
— Charlie Walker is a local newspaper columnist. He can be reached at P.O. Box 441, Kingstree, SC 29556.
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