Hospital Trips With Mom

I don't have a picture for this memory because it happened a long time ago and what physical photo I have left of those time are long gone. But the memories are as fresh as when it actually happened.

My most memorable moments with mom happened the year I was 10. I had UTI back then and needed to visit the hospital every month. Once a month, every one Wednesday, Mom and I would take the bus from Chenor to Temerluh and then another bus from Temerluh to Kuantan where the hospital was.

It was my special time with Mom. We would go to Kuantan early in the morning to get to my appointment and it was a treat for me. You would think I would dread the hospital visits, but to me it was a time spend with mom just by myself and it was a day off from school and Mom would always either treat me to a lunch at KFC or A&W.

And whatever new toy or prize from those fast food restaurant will be mine for the asking.

I loved those few months when I had to go back and forth to the hospitals because it was a wonderful time spend away from home where no chores needed to be done and mom was there just to spoil me with her undivided attention.

I still recall those trips to the hospital with fondness and it is something that will never be erased from my memory bank.

Last year it was my turn to go to the hospital for Mom's sake. Looking after her after she was admitted to a normal ward was my responsibility and I was glad to look after her, even though it was emotionally draining watching Mom slip away from my grasp bit by tiny bit.

Speaking of hospitals, it would seem that between Mom and I we have seen a lifetime's worth of hospital. During her life Mom too has been in and out of hospitals, the last trip to the hospital being the most serious and fatal.

Hospitals now bring a different meaning to me. It is no longer a nice field trip with mom where at the end of the day I'll get a KFC treat. It is now the place where I lost Mom. The horror of losing the one you love is what marks hospitals for me nowadays.

I guess I will never think of hospital now without thinking that there was the last place where I saw Mom alive.

From joyful childhood trips to regulate a rather non-threatening aillment to heartbreaking sorrow of watching Mom passed away, hospitals have always been a mainstay in my life and I hope I won't grow an aversion to it because of what happened to Mom.