I was at the cancer hospital with my mother today. While she was in having her radiation, I was in the waiting room trying hard not to "absorb" everyone's pain and sickness as I have a tendency to be an emotional sponge. A guy about 35 was sitting there and you could tell he was very ill. No hair, plastic bucket on his lap in case he got sick etc. He was waiting for his ride to pick him up. The nurse asked if he was going to be okay waiting there and he said "I hope so" and started to cry. It was very sad and heartbreaking and I was trying not to cry because it stirs up all kinds of stuff for me.

I was flipping through the pages of a magazine trying to refocus when the cops came into the waiting room pushing a man in a wheelchair. Even though there was a sheet covering him (and his orange jumpsuit) it was plain to see he was an inmate. That, for reasons I won't go into right now, was triggering enough, but when the sheet slid off and I saw him handcuffed I almost had a meltdown. I'm still a little shaky.

This happened before when I had to take my mom to the emergency room when she fell and broke her arm. They brought someone in handcuffed to the stretcher. Ugh. Gotta stop thinking about it.