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Elgin State Hospital |
So this is the last post, last thing I have to say about Elgin State Hospital and my interlude there as a summer nursing intern. You know, there isn't even an Elgin State Hospital anymore. It's now a Mental Health Center, and much smaller. And I don't know if that's a good thing or not.
Once upon a time, it was so very, very resplendent. The rolling grounds were a thing of beauty, in sync with the benevolent intentions of providing a haven for broken souls to heal.
Here's a more recent YouTube video of its history in honor of its 150th anniversary. Fascinating, at least to me! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UHJLZMyK38M
In all my experience at this institution, I never saw more than a handful of visitors... total. Forgotten, forsaken, I would think that covered many of the abandoned souls I saw there. I'm sure some people got visited, just sayin' I never saw it much at all. But this ordinary and, to me, remarkable man and woman unfailingly came with picnic lunches and gave this woman a life! I can't imagine how easy it would be to forget your divorced spouse of long ago, with no shared children to tie you to one another. And to be a second wife and willingly set aside a couple weekends a month year after year to visit my husband's ex? I'm not sure I have that bone. But I'm hoping for a transplant, because I know who I want to be when I grow up.
This was a hard place in many ways. Tough lessons along the way. Things to learn. Like I am indelibly, eternally in contempt of psychotropic drugs, I scorn them vehemently, even if they help a few, the damage humanity has suffered is so egregious that they should be wiped from the face of the earth. And I'm saying that as nicely as I can.
Then. Kindness is #1, sense of humor #2. I do know the most enduring thing I took from my time there is the even deeper realization than before that we are indeed all human, all deserving of love and attention, even respect. We are all responsible for each other. And the most valuable lesson learned there for me was that those who got involved in looking out for the other guy and got out of their own little worlds were the happiest. Who's to say that was possible for everyone to do? I'm not sure some could even make that choice.
Actually I'm sure that was a bridge too far for many. But it became apparent that those who could break out of their own private concerns, obsessions, worlds if only momentarily, and reach out to help others in even the most trivial of ways from lighting a cigarette for another, to sharing your sweater or sandwich, were no longer living in hell at that point, though their bodies may well have been imprisoned in this bizarre scenario.
I think I need to borrow a page from their books. I trust all these years later they, and those they loved and served, are held very close in God's arms. Perhaps they always were.
I think I need to borrow a page from their books. I trust all these years later they, and those they loved and served, are held very close in God's arms. Perhaps they always were.