I'm watching the first season of October Road on DVD and I'm totally into it. The show is about a writer named Nick Garrett who left his home town ten years ago to pursue his dream of writing. He wrote a novel that did quite well, but most of his friend's saw themselves in Nick's novel and they are hurt by it. Throw in the fact that Nick left his high school girlfriend, Hannah, heartbroken after not returning and the fact that he's into somebody else upon his return after ten years, and you have all the makings of high drama...or low drama if you think a love triangle is overdone. Oh, and Hannah has a ten year old son named Sam. But enough about the show itself, I want to talk about one particular scene that was quite moving.
Hannah's child is in the operating room after wrecking on his bicycle and nearly being hit by a car. Nick and Hannah are waiting for news about Sam when an elderly gentleman they don't know befriends them. He tells them that his wife of 56 years is in bad shape and that the doctors have told him to prepare for the worst. Turns out that the elderly gentleman lost his wife in that hospital six days prior and he tells Nick and Hannah that he just can't imagine walking out the doors without her. In the end, Sam is okay, and Nick walks through the doors with the man in a rather moving scene.
Their ER connection reminded me of the many days and nights I spent in the ER with my grandma about eight years ago. I'd take her in because she had chest pains (her heart was failing) and I'd meet all sorts of people in the ER. Some had minor bumps or bruises. Some had major issues. But in the end, we were all just people who were willing to be honest about our struggles for a while. Sometimes we'd share stories with each other as we waited for news about our loved ones. Sometimes we'd just give each other a knowing look. And it all seemed to help somehow.
It makes me wish that strangers wouldn't wait for such traumatic circumstances in order to connect with each other.
