DIY History | Transcribe | Iowa Women’s Lives: Letters and Diaries | Eve Drewelowe's journals, volumes II-III, 1950s

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Eve Drewelowe's journals, volumes II-III, 1950s

Page 130

I was kindly asked and included among the guests. After the histamine injection about four - thirty in the afternoon, the you son Baylord Jr. came to St Mary's for me and drove me to his home for a short while. I carried my brown felt upon my arm as has been my want. Noone I am sure could detect a difference between my sherbet glass of half and half and the eggnogg of the other guests. The appearance was quite the same but the aroma was sadly lacking in my cup. To ask me & partake of their hospitality was a very gracious gesture upon the part of the Hortons. I enjoyed the brief bit of relaxation by the glass of their Christmas hearth, the brief respite from the hospital and the glimpse into a happy family life. It is always interesting to see people in their own setting among their new things and in a home environment.
Very soon however, I was returned & the then fitful disturbing atmosphere of St Mary's. Only the afternoon before a woman had been moved from surgery down our hall. She had been screaming off and an all night - poor soul! That day the blood-curdling screaming had continued at intervals. We were all upset because of her presence. At first I felt sorry for her, but after a certain length of time, I could endure no more. The poor woman, I was told, was beyond knowing pain or caring; was beyond suffering. From then on I felt only compassion for the hearing who were within earshot and who must have suffered acutely. We were all being slowly driven mad by her unrelenting and terrifying screaming. 
She - I understand - wasn't supposed to be in Second - center Medical, but had been pawned off onto us by surgery, on some vitamin deficiency or other pretext. During the holiday season, because of fewer patients, whole sections are always closed off in surgery. Her presence, disturbing as it was, was not due to a lack of room in the other wing. There was ample space so that so that she could have been off to herself.

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I was kindly asked and included among the guests. After the histamine injection about four - thirty in the afternoon, the you son Baylord Jr. came to St Mary's for me and drove me to his home for a short while. I carried my brown felt upon my arm as has been my want. Noone I am sure could detect a difference between my sherbet glass of half and half and the eggnogg of the other guests. The appearance was quite the same but the aroma was sadly lacking in my cup. To ask me & partake of their hospitality was a very gracious gesture upon the part of the Hortons. I enjoyed the brief bit of relaxation by the glass of their Christmas hearth, the brief respite from the hospital and the glimpse into a happy family life. It is always interesting to see people in their own setting among their new things and in a home environment. Very soon however, I was returned & the then fitful disturbing atmosphere of St Mary's. Only the afternoon before a woman had been moved from surgery down our hall. She had been screaming off and an all night - poor soul! That day the blood-curdling screaming had continued at intervals. We were all upset because of her presence. At first I felt sorry for her, but after a certain length of time, I could endure no more. The poor woman, I was told, was beyond knowing pain or caring; was beyond suffering. From then on I felt only compassion for the hearing who were within earshot and who must have suffered acutely. We were all being slowly driven mad by her unrelenting and terrifying screaming. She - I understand - wasn't supposed to be in Second - center Medical, but had been pawned off onto us by surgery, on some vitamin deficiency or other pretext. During the holiday season, because of fewer patients, whole sections are always closed off in surgery. Her presence, disturbing as it was, was not due to a lack of room in the other wing. There was ample space so that so that she could have been off to herself.