Thread by @gradydoctor

1/
Grady Hospital, 2019

Walked in on my Grady elder patient who is staring at her smartphone

Me: "Hey there. Came back to check on you before you go."
Her: *shows me her phone* "Which one of these dresses you like better? The red or the silver one?"

I leaned over and stared.

2/
Me: "Red. Always the red. Red never fails."
Her: "Red do make you look sassy, don't it?"
Me: *chuckling* "Is sassy what you're going for?"
Her: *winks*

She enlarged the red dress picture on the screen and smirked.

Her: “Yeah, I thank this the one.”
Me: *thumbs up*

3/

Me: "What's the occasion?"
Her: "I'm having a big birthday party! My kids is giving it for me."
Me: "How cool!"
Her: “I'm 'bout to make 80 next month!"
Me: "80? What a blessing!"
Her: “Bible say you get 3 score and 10. Look like I got me 10 extra, don’t it?”

*smiling*

4/
Her: *voice quiet* "This gon' be my very first birthday party I ever had in my whole life."
Me: "Really?"
Her: "It was 13 of us growing up so we ain't fuss over nobody birthday too much. Plus we ain't have a lot. Then I started having chil'ren of my own."
Me: *listening*

5/
Her: "Seven in all. And more grandbabies and greatgrands than I can keep up with. One of my daughters? She was born ON my birthday. So after that, I guess I just forgot about mine."

*silence*

Me: "Well I love knowing you’re ‘bout to have everybody focused on you.”

6/
Me: “For this? Definitely go with the red."
Her: *staring at the red dress on her phone again* "Reckon I will."

*silence*

Her: "You know? I would invite you, Miss Manning.” *starts to whisper* “'Cept for it's a surprise birthday party that I ain't s'posed to know about."

7/
Me: *laughter* "What?!"
Her: *shakes head and chuckles* "Them kids messed around and told my greatgrandbaby. She came right up to me and said, 'Big Mama, what wig you wearing to your surprise birthday party?'"

*both of us howling with laughter*

8/
Her: "HER grandmama—the one behind it—is my daughter who got my same birthday as me. And she damn near gave it away herself. One minute she say, 'Mama, I gotta work at church on our birthday, okay?' Then she go to saying something else she got to do that day.”

*laughter*

9/
Her: “THEN she gon’ ask me do I want to go wig shopping. I says, 'What I need a new wig for? And why you steady telling me your comings and goings?'”
Me: *laughing* "That’s cold!”
Her: “She be sending me wig pictures. I be like, ‘What’s this for?’ I like messing with her.”

10/
Me: "Well, I hope little mama ain't tell everybody that Big Mama already know about the party."
Her: "I told her don't say nothing. But she probably somewhere telling everybody including the milk man right now."
Me: “Not the milk man!”
Her: “Chile, yeah.”

*laughter*

11/
She grew quiet.

Her: "80 a long time to wait for a birthday party, ain't it?"
Me: *quiet voice* “Yeah.”

*silence*

Her: "But know what? EVERY new day God give me feel like my birthday party." *clasps her hands together, closes her eyes and shakes her head*

12/
Her: "Look like with all I seen and lived through in my life? EVERY new day I see feel like a surprise party.”

I encircled her weathered hand in mine.

Me: “80 years is a long time.”
Her: *glancing at our hands then looking up at me* “‘Specially when you us.”

*silence*

13/
I pressed my lips together and nodded in deference.

Her: *perking up* "Okay, sugar! Now come on help me practice my surprised face, hear? You ready?"
Me: *laughing* "Yes, ma'am. Let's do it."

Which is exactly what I did.

#amazinggrady #bestjobever #speciallywhenyouus