My Nurse Went to Russia

A new nurse came to take my temperature and to listen to my heart. She was a chatty woman with long, stringy blond hair, carelessly tied back. We sat facing each other at my dining table, with my leg propped up on her thigh so that she could take my blood pressure on my leg. (It has to be done that way, since I have two bad arms, the right swollen due to breast cancer and the left full of tubes for dialysis.)

Cheerfully she told me about her children, a 16-year-old daughter and a 21-year-old son, who loves to play with their two dogs, one a “friendly” pit bull and the other – I don’t remember. She is more of a talker than I am. Somehow travel was mentioned, and she said, “I lived in Berlin for three years. My husband was in the service. We lived near the Wall.”

She said, “It is so beautiful there.” (My brother Don will vouch for that.) “So clean, no trash on the street like you see here.”

“Did you get to travel to other places in Europe?”

“I went to Russia.”

“How did you get to Russia?”

“On a bus.”

“On a bus? How long did it take you?”

“We had to get up at six in the morning and didn’t get home until after dark.”

“I went from Moscow to Berlin on a bus tour. It took three days. Are you sure you went to Russia?”

“Yes, we went to the other side of the Wall. We had to show our passports, and they lifted this big gate for the bus to drive through. I went to Russia.”

It was obvious: Her husband was stationed in Berlin during the Cold War, when the Berlin Wall stood between the East and West zones of Berlin. She had been into the Russian Occupied Zone. When I tried to explain this to her, she did not listen. She said, “I was so lucky to get to go to Russia.”

So what? Many Americans travel all over the World and never leave home. This is a cheerful, gregarious woman. If she somehow was transported to Paris, I am sure she would have a wonderful time, and it would not matter if the French thought she was uncouth.

She does no harm. On the other hand, I am not sure I want medical advice from someone who thinks Russia is adjacent to Berlin. Where does she think Poland is?

Also, I am glad we don’t have a vice-president who thinks Africa is a country. Such a person would not be as harmless as the little nurse whose job is limited to taking temperature and blood pressure.