Tillie

The longer I work at the hospital the more the patients work their way into my heart. Its funny how your impression of and reaction toward someone can change as you get to know them. I first met Tillie in my firt week, we were visiting the lower locked ladies ward, whcih is genrally considered to have the worst conditions in the hospital. Its a crowded place where patients sleep three to a bed and share there draft bare home with birds who fly in throw the broken windows. Especailly when you first meet them its hard to tell the ladies appart from each other, they all have there hair shaved and wear head scaves.
Tillie however stood out imediately and hers was one of the first names I learnt. This is largely because when I met her she was standing on her bed shouting and she didn't have a scrap of clothing on. Other patients and staff seemed to avoid her, and my first reaction was that I wanted to keep a safe distance.
In our next meeting we got to know each other a little better. Tillie is one of the patients we bring down for one to one sessions, when we work with more difficult patients and i went to collect her from the ward and bring her down to club. When she arrived off the ward i was pleased to see she was fully clothed, which in fact meant that i didn't even recognise her as the same woman to start off with. However her clothes didn't stay on for long. In the corridore there was a pile of newly donated clothes. Tillie was keenly interested in them and as i took her hand to lead her down stairs she pushed me away and started striping off her own clothes, i assumed she simply wanted to change these for clean ones. Wrong what tillie had in mind was far less conventional. She removed all her clothes and wrapped them up in a sheet, she then rand down the corridore wearing nothing and i ran after her, she ran down two flights of stairs with me following close behind and dashed off into a dark corridore in the basment. This turned out to be where the laundry was kept and Tillie added her pile of cloths to tohers already sat on a cart in the hall.
She then ran back up stairs and rifled through the donations, dressing her self in trousers, a suit jacket and a balerclaver. By this time I was losing it and was almost hesterical by the time we got downstairs to start our session.
Over the last few months i have had other similar adventures with Tillie and am learning that she always knows exactly what she wants and however strange it may seem to me her actions always have a very definate purpose. I like to think we are building up quite a good relationships and one of the highlights of my trip so far has to be the way she greeted me on my last ward visit.
As i came on to the ward there was an unmistakable screach, Tillie came hurtling across the ward and gave me a huge hug, followed by her version of a kiss where she rubs her face up each side of yours.
I was so unsure of her at first but now i really look forward to spending time with this amazing lady and i feel so honored that she has come to trust me and show me affection. everyone needs a good hug sometimes, especailly when you are this far from home.