Visit
He was lying there by the window in a four bed bay on Huntsman 5 Ward at The Northern General Hospital. He was wearing hospital pyjamas with a small repeating word pattern: "Property of the NHS". I noticed that two of the other old men in the room were wearing the same. The fourth man was sitting up in a high chair next to his bed. He wearing a white T-shirt and khaki coloured shorts. The fifth person in the room - apart from me - was an African nurse in a lilac coloured uniform. I brought Bert a "Get Well Soon" card and a carton of seedless grapes that I had picked up at the local Co-op store. Isn't that what you are meant to bring hospital patients? Grapes. It always used to be the case. At first all seemed fine - a continuation of our lunch conversation at the Hungry Horse pub last week but gradually I realised that something was amiss. Above the bed were ceiling panels and several light boxes plus curtains runners. "Can you see them?" ...