Please caption this image
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Montreal, QC, May 2008 [Click to enlarge]
It's ironic that the hospital where my father is is the same place where I was born and the same place where I spent so much time as a child. Soon after my own medical adventures there - 6th floor, paediatrics - they closed the ward and converted it to geriatrics. Time marches on, I guess.
So every time we visit my father, I feel this need to wander the halls at least once. I try to remember what it felt like when I was a child - and by extension what it's like for my father now that he's there, too. I walk slowly down near-deserted halls, trying to record everything with my eyes. But visuals are only part of the equation. Hospitals all seem to have a certain spirit to them. They're scenes of immense joy and even more immense tragedy, and everyone has strong feelings at the mere mention of the word. During these walkabouts, I try to capture that in my mind's eye as well.
This time, I took my camera. I know it's pretty much verboten to shoot in places like this, but I figured it's better to beg forgiveness after the fact than to ask permission beforehand (I know that makes me a bad boy. So be it. I wasn't shooting people, and indeed I didn't pull the lens cap off until I was sure there wasn't anyone else around. Which is a pretty easy thing to do in a place this big. The bigger they build them, the more empty they seem.)
Perhaps more than any, this image seemed to capture the mausoleum-like quiet of this place. I immediately knew it would make a great captionable photo. Now, over to you...
Your turn: Please suggest a caption for this photo in a comment. You may leave as many as you wish. I'll post the winner next Sunday.
About last week's image of my daughter's eye: I'll never run out of different ways to photograph our kids, and I hope they never tire of my lens. This week's honorable menschens list is full of some great, thoughtful captions. It was a tough week to choose:
- Barb: "Forward Focus"
- Aol: "The eyes have it!"
- Jacie: "The window to my soul."
- Bob-kat: "Looking to the future"
- Marcia: "Eye see the future"
- Omykiss: "Eye full ...."
- Terri: "My what big eyes you have."
- Heidi: "See the world... but don't lose your soul."
- Robin: "Eye on the prize."
Posts
29 comments:
When time stands still...
Thanks, Carmi. I'm honored! Your blog is one of my must reads, as well! I never tire of coming here and looking at the world through your eyes, and you have such a way with words. Thank you so much for sharing your talents with us!
'Waiting on the world to change...'
Hope you get some good news soon
solitude
Rest for the weary.
Making a bargain with God.
Uneasy anticipation
I've spent many many hours in hallways and chairs just like these. Alone even when together in a group...it isn't an easy place to be. This picture almost needs no caption. But it speaks to me of the thoughts I've had when waiting in hospitals...so my caption would be:
If these walls could talk...
"Only the Lonely"
Congratulations Christine!
For this week's hospital corridor:
"memorial services tomorrow at St. Jude's 9 o'clock"
or
"Dad died."
Carmi: Poignant for me to stop and look at this photo and reflect how at age 7 & 8 I was in intensive care for two weeks each. I am still staggering that I am alive. And very, very grateful.
My Best!
silence...
Before I read the explanation caption was "Next." Now I have to rethink that.
Echo.
(With this caption I think both of the sounds I "see" in this photo... but also of your story of births and the cycle of life that goes through these halls.)
Thanks for the menschens, too! Take care, Carmi.
time out
Wow, what an intense photo. I love your description of the hospital, and how it has changed, and how it seems so empty (especially as a large hospital). I spent a week in the hospital for the birth of my son and while he was in NICU and Pediatrics, so I definitely have interesting feelings about hospitals.
My caption, then, would be:
"Where every day feels like an eternity."
Hi carmi .. thanks for the menschen.
This week's attempt ... into the unknown ...
"please, please, please..."
Hall monitor
Waiting, room
Sounds of silence
(Hey Carmi.........I imagine I'll be back with more...:) )
"Stare Chair"...
because that is what most people do in a single chair opposite a room's door... or opposite nothing...
is stare...
Thanks for the honourable mention :)
My attempt this week:
"Waiting for news"
back to the future seem appropriate and yet trite
hi Carmi... i am hoping that your Dad is better....
my caption for this photo would be
' a fork in the road '
This hall, that chair, this life...my world.
Carmi, you and your father are in my thoughts. Sadly, that pic looks all too familiar to me. Good job of capturing the mood...somehow it conveys dread and hope in almost equal portions.
My thoughts are with you at this time, it is never easy.
My caption ideas are:
"Time Stands Still"
"The Long Wait"
"The Long Walk"
"Tales from a Chair"
and lastly
"The Things These Walls Have Seen"
Walk with me
is the only thought I could come up with that wasn't a song lyric
Homeward bound
Walk this way
One pill makes you smaller and one pill makes you tall
Walk like an Egyptian
Silence, Not Always Golden
if chairs could talk.
waiting for patience
silent hoping
i hope your father is on the mend Carmi. We have had a recent "stay" in the hospital on this end too. My husband had a minor stroke 3 weeks ago. he's physically recovered completely, and is working on the emotional stuff to catch up. When they admitted him, they put him on the pediatric ward instead of the "stroke" ward because he wasn't too debilitated from it. It was the perfect place for him to be and for the kids to feel a little more comfortable in a hospital setting.
I look at this photo and I have a multi-sensory experience.....mostly driven by my olfactory memories!
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