I’d had the flu, I couldn’t eat anything for two days except scrambled-egg sandwiches.”
Heather nodded. “That’s because your system is depleted. You’ve lost certain vitamins and minerals.”
“One of my husband’s nieces ate all the paint off her
bed after she had bronchitis,” Renie said, still looking
annoyed.
“That’s a bit unusual,” Heather remarked, her fine
eyebrows lifting.
“I assume,” Judith said before Renie could go on
about Bill’s nieces and nephews, who numbered
more than a dozen, “that you don’t really come down
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too hard on patients who insist they have to have a
certain item. I imagine some of them are rather
amusing.”
Heather dimpled. “Oh, yes. We had an elderly man
last year who insisted on eating chocolate-covered
grasshoppers. I gather they’re quite a delicacy in some
cocktail party circles.”
“That’s very different,” Judith agreed with a big
smile. “Most, I suppose, are more ordinary.”
“That’s true,” Heather said. “Milk shakes are very
popular. So is chocolate and steak. Now while protein
is necessary, post-op patients shouldn’t eat steak because it’s difficult to digest. Quite frankly, a hamburger
is more acceptable.”
“It would be to me,” Renie said.
Judith ignored her cousin. “I heard,” she said with a
straight face, “that Joan Fremont had a fondness for
peppermint stick candy.”
Heather frowned. “I don’t recall that. I believe she
preferred Italian sodas. The ones with the vanilla syrup
in the cream and club soda.”
“Was she able to sneak one in?” Judith asked innocently.
“She did,” Heather said. “I wasn’t on duty, but
Corinne told me about it. At least one of them was
brought to the main desk by a funny little man wearing
polka-dot pants and a yellow rain slicker. Sister Julia,
our receptionist, got such a kick out of him. Ms. Fremont—Mrs. Kirby—actually had two of them brought
in, and first thing in the morning. It was very naughty
of her.”
“Really,” Judith said. “Was Mr. Kirby with her
then?”
“No,” Heather responded. “Mr. Kirby had a deadline
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Mary Daheim
to meet, so he didn’t come in that morning until . . .”
The nurse paused, her face falling. “He didn’t come in
until after his wife had expired.”
“Poor man!” Judith said with feeling. “Had he been
