Victoria Goes to the Hospital

One Monday as I was walking out the door to go to class I was met by Victoria’s daughter (Estelle) and son-in-law (Pedro). They proceeded to tell me Victoria was in the hospital. I wasn’t terribly surprised because she had been to the doctor a few days before and was told she had bronchitis. Not to mention that her grandchildren had been over the night before and every time the grandkids come over she complains of chest pains and anxiety. They told me that they thought it was something to do with her heart but that they didn’t really know yet. She also asked if Lyndsey and I would want to move houses. I promptly told her that we would love to stay with Victoria as long as she wanted us to because we loved it here but we didn’t want to be an inconvenience either. I ran off to school to inform Lyndsey of the news. After informing our program directors of the situation we headed back home where Estelle was going to meet us for lunch. We assured her that we would be fine staying by ourselves for a few nights and we came up with a telephone ringing system so that we would know when it was her calling and not one of the million other people who call incessantly. She also wrote her name and number down and it was then that we realized that her name is actually Esther not Estelle as we had thought for 2 months time. The next day we were told that Victoria was fine but they were running a lot of tests so she would be in the hospital for a week. The plan was for Esther to come cook lunch and something else for us to heat up at night. We were cool with it and ended up enjoying the freedom to eat and shower whenever we wanted as well as have friends over (gasp!). People really don’t hang out at other people’s houses here so we took the liberty of having a few movie nights. We also got to use the TV and watched several movies (Casablanca, Thirteen Days, Supersize Me, Notting Hill). Basically whatever we can find at the library or in Victoria’s collection. We also got to know Esther and her family very well which was fun. She would run (literally) through the house cooking and cleaning while Lyndsey and I talked to her sons and husband. One day she even brought their dog! Our friends’ Kelley and Ashley live with Victoria’s friend Maria Luisa and on Saturday we were invited over for lunch. This was a big deal and we were very excited. She made paella which was delicious, and we got to see their house. Afterwards we met Kelley’s parents who were visiting. They took us out for ice cream and we had a good time chatting. We then decided to go visit Victoria at the hospital. After getting lost (we don’t go anywhere new without getting lost) we finally found it. Victoria did NOT look good though. She was in a small room that did not have air conditioning with two other patients. At one point I had to step out of the room because I felt nauseas and thought I might faint. Luckily I didn’t because I did not want to end up in one of those rooms as a patient for ANY amount of time. We gathered as much that she was going to be there for several more days. A few days later Lyndsey and I stepped off the elevator for lunch when we smelled something horrendous. Usually we are greeted by a wonderful smell that is always coming from our apartment, but unfortunately this day it was the bad one that originated in our casa. We now refer to what we had for lunch that day as puke soup and it is the most accurate description. During the two weeks that Victoria ended up staying in the hospital we had a few questionable soups. Different neighbors and family members would cook things for us and needless to say their cooking paled in comparison to Victoria’s. On these days after Esther would leave I would proceed to flush them down the toilet since we don’t have a sink disposal system. We still don’t really know why Victoria was in the hospital and I’m convinced that the doctors weren’t so sure either because they first told us it was a near blockage in her heart, then they said it was a heart attack and lastly they said it was just bronchitis and no heart problem. They knew she had bronchitis from the beginning though so I’m not really sure what went on that two weeks while Victoria was in the hospital. We were glad though the day she finally walked through the front door.

<3 Ashton