By Judith Jochnowitz
Dear Friends,
ABC World News TONIGHT with Charles Gibson - 6:30 EST, for all others check your local listings. They tell me it will be great!
Your media is keeping us very busy, so not too worry when Judy takes a brief hiatus from the keyboard. I will let the media tell the tough stories and protect my psyche today. The daily WGH hospitalization tally is on our website www.wgh.org.il under News and Events. So, some curiosities of the times......
The neighborhood is so beautifully quiet, I find myself feeling sorry for the people in the center and south of Israel. No wonder friends there call me complaining about the hicks from the north. My noisiest neighbors have gone, leaving us, between booms, with that blessed natural quiet when you can almost hear the plants growing. I don’t wish these people on the center of the country, but I wish I could use their stereo systems and barking dogs as a secret weapon against the Hezbollah.
Housewives’ questioned - During the second week of the war, an unusual black dust permeated all our homes. Usually dust reflects the ground where you live, sandy, terra cotta, etc. So this didn’t fit and was even more strange because, when dampened, it became shiny. One friend claimed it was from the fires on both sides of the border, but since it didn’t resemble ash or nature, another thought it must have something to do with rockets or rocket fuel.
Coming out of acute stress reaction - Our dog always suffered from shooting. Summer weddings, accompanied by automatic rifle fire and fire works, would find her covering under a bed or in a closet. For the first three weeks she shook, teeth chattering, going out to relieve herself only once daily, sometimes not until I returned home from work. Always the first in the shelter, even before we were hooked up to the warning sirens, she now flies down the steps on the first note. However in the past few days she has started barking back, telling Naserallah what she thinks of the close calls.
For years a note on my bulletin board read, "When women are depressed they either eat or go shopping. Men invade another country," by Elayne Booster. Can't we find them an alternative?
Choosing a grocery store - How do you choose yours? By price, I’ve been called the cheapest of the cheap. With illogic I could drive an hour to pay less. By quality, I drive to the next village for farm-fresh produce sold from a tin shack with sprinklers on the roof for air conditioning. Now there are two simple criteria, the least time out away from shelter and the building with the safest construction. After much discussion, I stopped once in the last 3 weeks at a first-floor super under a four-storey building - as most katyushas don’t penetrate more than 1-2 floors.
Most difficult things I’ve done - Standing at the entrance to the ER when ambulances are arriving. Invading patient privacy by bringing media to underground hospitalization shelters. Asking wounded to tell their story to journalists. Stopping to buy gasoline. Taking my son’s call when he told me he was on his way north.
Accountability - The ‘60’s loom wild and romantic in my children’s imaginations. Often one will still notify me of a demonstration on some moral or ecological issue, wondering why I no longer demonstrate. I’ve switched modes; I try to live by my values, not imposing them. They tease us about composting, washing aluminum foil, or buying ethnic goods. This tirade is nothing but a search for justification for watering my garden during a siren and in-coming barrage, as I stood there with the hose gently sprinkling, thinking either I live my life as I want to, or not.
Since the second Lebanon war began:
WGH has taken in the largest number of casualties of any hospital.
WGH moved its ER three times, besides having to divide it among three buildings. The old building is simply not safe for patients and staff during an attack. Trauma ER is now a row of beds in the hallway of the imaging center.
WGH must build a safe ER commensurate with our operating rooms and underground hospital!
B'shalom,
Judy