In The Hospital

Every time I hear that some of our troops have been taken to the Landstuhl Hospital in Germany, I wonder what it's like now. It must still be the biggest American Base Hospital in Europe. It's mentioned in the news a lot.

I spent 5 days there, back in 1965, when my son was born. Not because anything was wrong, that's just the way it was done then. The nursery was small, and kept available for emergencies. So the babies were left in bassinets in our room. Right from the start, which really scared me. I'd never even been around a new born before. Thank goodness for an experienced Mother in our room.

There were six of us in an end room with sheets hanging all over in an effort to control dust and cold air due to some construction. The sheets gave us a false sense of privacy. We were divided by them, but the construction workers, (German, not G.I.) were constantly pulling them aside and going through to the door outside. Then back in again. I'm not sure what the construction was, but it was noisy and dirty and drafty and there was no privacy at all. A major problem for me.

Everything we needed was down the hall at a nurses station. No room service, they had us on our feet right away. Since J was in such a hurry and had arrived in the hall, there was tearing and stitches for me. Those first walks were pretty uncomfortable. But, we couldn't have more than one diaper at a time and weren't allowed to fetch for each other, so I made a lot of trips down the hall. Which was exactly their intent.

When G finally returned to the hospital, I was already settled in the room with the bassinet and had already done the toe and finger count and decided he looked exactly like G's Father. He'd been rubbed with oil and his skin looked ok. G didn't stay with us very long. He took off to fill out the paperwork required when an American baby is born in another country. J has both an American Birth Certificate and a German Birth Certificate. And, G was told, we had to register the baby when we got back to the states, or he could be drafted into a German Army when he was old enough.

When G came back to the room with the papers, I learned he had switched the names we agreed on. Instead of T.J.B., the birth certificate was J.T.B.. But that didn't anger me as much as discovering that G had already phoned our parents with the news. We were suppose to do that together. It was my only chance in those two years to talk to my folks, and he took it away from me. G was still selfish, controlling and immature, and I was growing bitter about it.

For 5 days, baby J and I were on Army time. Reveille and Taps. Meals announced over a loud speaker, "Come and Get It." We would walk down the hall, get in line and carry our trays back to the room. And return them when we finished. If I wanted a nurse (or medic) in the room, I had to go find one. Bathrooms were also down the hall. And, shared with other mothers and nurses, medics, visitors and all those construction workers. Single rooms for whoever got there first and usually, lines to wait in. Or you could use a bed pan in your room, (then you had to empty it yourself) with all those construction workers coming and going in plain view. Because of my stitches, I had been given some heat lamp contraption and told to use it to heat the stitches several times a day. I tried it once by tenting myself in sheets in bed with the darn thing and shining it where "the light don't shine." It glowed through the sheets and the workers laughed and pointed and I never used the heat lamp again.

The front man for The Dudes, Ollie (His last name was Olsen) was stationed at Landstuhl and he was my only visitor during those 5 days. G stopped by each day, but never stayed. He was too busy with the Army and the Band. I was still so angry with him about the phone call, I didn't care if he was there or not. But, I was glad enough to see him when I was released to take J home. Even though they released me at noon, and he decided not to come till he got off duty. (They would have let him leave early to take home.)

Segroine had made us a big "Welcome Home" sign and it was stretched across the house when I got there. There was still a lot of snow on the ground, but the child was at the door waiting. She was tugging at his blanket to get a peek, before we were even inside. Both Segroine and Frau Reiss followed me upstairs and it was almost as nice a homecoming as I could have expected from family. Almost. G didn't even come in. He dropped my things inside the door for Segroine to carry up and he went off again on a band job. We had a brand new baby, but it was "back to normal" for G. selfish....selfish.....selfish.....selfish.........................................