A buddy took exception to the following story. I think his ire was up, in response to the Salt Lake Nurse story. Nurses, Angels of Mercy, victimized by mean old cops, yada, yada, yada. That may play to Joe Citizen but cops know better.
It’s 7AM the cops have provided the cold beer. Who is bringing the chips and dip. Who else is liable to drink beer for breakfast? Oh, look it’s the Angels of Mercy. Want gallows humor, cynicism piled on cynicism, hang out with the cops and nurses. We know each other well.
I estimate in a medium sized town with one hospital, half the nursing staff will have been married to half the police force at some point in time or another. They share many of the same experiences, frustrations, and humor. They work the same hours. No matter what social scientists say they both know that a full moon in conjunction with the weekend and the first or fifteenth of the month means the wackos are gonna be out and howling. If the cops don’t get them the nurses will.
My mother was a nurse for fifty years. Mostly she worked the midnight shift. When I started working as a cop I worked the midnight shift. On my days off I would load up my dirty laundry and drive to my parent’s house in San Antonio. I got off at 7 AM, mom got off at 8 AM. By the time she got home the first load of laundry was in the machine and I was sitting at the kitchen table reading the morning paper and drinking a beer. The first three or four times this happened she gave me an odd look, but didn’t say anything and went off to bed.
About the fifth time, she found me drinking a beer with my corn flakes, she went out into the garage and grabbed her own beer. She sat down at the table and said,”I’ve been wanting a beer when I got home for over twenty years, but never did because I thought your father would have me committed as an alcoholic. If you can drink one, so can I.”
I can’t think of a better send off. A group of nurses standing around my rapidly cooling corpse shaking their heads saying “damn look at that thing!” or, “Nope, don’t know him, I’d have remembered that!, He will be missed.”
Cops and Nurses also know no matter how much they have seen, they ain’t seen nothing yet.