A Living History – Eleonore of Bavaria

She was silver-haired and weepy-eyed, with bluish gray bags under he lower-eyelids. Her grandson sat staring at his ipad. He looked like an Irish bartender–with a red beard and a toothy smile. He was patient and spent over five-hours at her bedside, with nowhere specific to go. She spoke perfect english with a slight european accent, but the more I listened the more familiar it sounded. Taking her full history, I asked extra questions as an excuse to listen to the pleasant sing-song voice. She stressed and drew out her ‘S’ sounds with a soothing tone that reminded me of the Kaa, the crafty, sly snake from Ruyard Kipling’s The Jungle Book. Satisfied that I had her work-up sorted out in my mind, I finally asked her where she was from. “Nuremburg,” she said, swallowing the “em” syllable and turning the city into two syllables instead of three. “Ich kann auch Deutsch,” I carefullly replied. “Ser gut!” she said, smiling. I dared not go any further with my German…it’s been 25 years now since I lived in Keil, but at one point I was fluent in High German. I glanced at her birthday on my patient sticker sheet, and realized she was a “tween” during World War II. Nuremburg was at the center of Allied bombing raids between 1943-1945. During the age when my step-daughter is just getting acne, wondering if boys are creepy or a little bit cool and running for student council, my patient...
Source: Mr. Hassle's Long Underpants - Category: Emergency Medicine Authors: Tags: Clinical Source Type: blogs