the Tender Years

off to the general side of the hospital to be with Steve. Crossing the
divide between the psychiatric grounds and the ‘real’ hospital, I made
my way to the ward that he had been placed on and found him in a
single room, sleeping.
Observing him whilst I sat beside him, he appeared (although
sleeping) to be tossing and turning as well as mumbling from time to
time. Then he would wake and appeared bothered by the light
coming in from the window and would turn over, shading his eyes. I
wasn’t sure if he knew that I was with him. Within an hour or so, he
suddenly climbed out of the hospital bed, walked past me sitting on
the chair and proceeded to urinate in the sink in the room.
Afterwards, he promptly climbed back into his bed. Immediately, I
spoke of this to the Nurses about him relieving himself in the sink, but
they did not appear too worried by this particular action.
I had been sitting with him for three hours and as he appeared to be
comfortably sleeping, I kissed his forehead and whispered that I
would be back to see him and I then went to work, as usual, in the
afternoon. After work, I did not go home, but made my way back to
my in-laws and shared a meal with them before visiting Stephen. The
next day and after a great deal of thought, I telephoned my boss at
work and explained that due to my husband’s accident, I would not be
coming to work until further notice.
We again visited Steve in the evening, and the Doctor in charge of
his care called me in for another discussion. Apparently, my husband
would not let anyone near him to allow a proper examination. The
Doctor went on to say that he had tried to conduct an examination but
that Steve was proving to be difficult and verbally abusive, and the
Doctor used references to the ‘F’ word. Contemplating this, I told the
Doctor that if I was with him and encouraged him, he would probably
let the staff look at him.
The next thing to do was to get this examination fulfilled. Walking
into Steve’s room, I gently coaxed him round and pointed out to the
Doctor some scratches on my husband’s head and a bruise on top of
one of his ears. I made a comment to the Doctor asking if Steve
should have an x-ray, after all, he had been kept in hospital for nearly
three days just laying there and not doing much at all. The Doctor
then indicated to the other staff present for Steve to have an
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