by Cheryl O'Brien

Created on: April 19, 2007   Last Updated: October 31, 2008

Attitude Overcomes Adversity

I believe we are not our experiences but our experiences and our attitude towards them does affect our lives.

Many years ago I lay in a hospital ward with three elder ladies as room companions. I was 23 and recovering from a tragic accident which had killed my son, brain injured my baby daughter and smashed my pelvis and both legs.

Companion number one was 88 years old and had had her left leg removed from the knee down.

Companion number two was 77 years old and also had her left leg removed from the knee down.

Companion number three was 65 years old and had broken her toe in a motor accident.

As the four of us lay in our respective beds contemplating life and hospitals and why we were all in one. I observed the different attitudes.

Companion number three cried and screamed and demanded more pain killers. She yelled at the nurses and complained to all her visitors about everything.

Companion number two was quieter but also complained. The tea was too cold. The nurses didn't know their job. Her children did not visit often enough. Her temporary prosthesis was awkward and she could not possibly use it and would await the arrival of her permanent one.

Companion number one took everything in her stride. Literally. The day her temporary prosthesis arrived she was up and walking. She thanked the nurses for their attention. She congratulated the doctor on doing a great job. She organised her daughter to purchase a number of short issue gold coins on sale at the time to give as presents to each of her grandchildren and spent hours writing Christmas cards to them each composing poems and sliding a gold coin in each envelope.

I had already lay in the hospital for four weeks, still not able to sit up. My daughter was still in intensive care in another part of the hospital and I only saw her when there were wardsmen available to wheel me to her bedside.

Companion three had only arrived the night before. Companions one and two had been in hospital for one week.

I had a lot of time on my hands to observe everything. My medication had just been lowered from pethidine to panadeine and I could feel a great deal more pain. I had decided not to fuss but rather to spend time in prayer and meditation, try to simply acclimatise myself to the new levels of pain I was experiencing.

My contemplations were interrupted by the excessive screams of companion number three. After a number of hours of listening to her screaming, yelling and complaining I turned towards her

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