“I really can’t take this thing. Is like I sick and all and should take a bed in the hospital. I know is for we own safety and so but this lining up in this hot sun is not easy and by the time you meet up is almost time for you to come down back. It is really heart rending,” she said to everyone who could hear, pain evident on her face.
I was in a long line of more than 40 persons, mostly women, in front of the Georgetown Public Hospital, waiting to be processed in order to be allowed to see our sick patients. We stood six feet apart, washed our hands, had our temperatures checked and then identified the patient’s name. The nurse then went through the names of patients written in a book and sometimes it took a minute or more before the name was found.
“Somebody done went and visit that patient you can’t go,” I remembered one woman being told. Tears were in her eyes as she turned to go, but not before indicating that she had in her possession a change of clothing, linen, and food for the patient.