The hospital was never really a place of dread for me, for I have become somewhat familiar with it during my childhood. I remember clearly that my mother used to take my sister and me to this hospital where my father worked. A gray narrow hallway with a slope became our playground and we would run up and down and slide on it. The area where we stayed waiting for our father, as I recall, was not particularly somber, however. It had sofas and a few small windows. There was even a bird cage with two lovebirds.
The first vivid memory of visiting someone in the hospital is fairly recent. My grandmother was diagnosed with lung cancer not too long ago and at that time she was staying in a hospital (I believe it was MacKay Hospital) in Taipei. We went to visit her one day. It's true that there is a certain unpleasant smell in hospitals, but after a while you get used to it. Outside the Mackay Hospital in Taipei there were tall brick walls and some arcs to represent the period it was built in history. The hospital inside is just like any other hospitals, with a faint gray tone that was supposed to be white. The lights, though brightly lit, could not fully clear out all the shadows lurking in the corners. I can't remember now what it was like in the room where my grandmother rested, but it was a regular four-person room with the hideous green curtains separating each bed. There was hardly anything to do except reading a book and eating. There was not even much to look at for the walls are awfully dull.
I am used to going to the hospital too! It was a familiar place to me, i still remember that sometimes when my mom has to go out with my older brother and my has to work. She would drop me with by dad and i would be loved by all the nurses. I was still very little at the time and my dad forbids me from going any where outside the resting room so all i did was chat, sleep and read.
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