I sat in front of an elderly mother and her very frustration middle aged daughter.
I’m was the waiting room at the doctors office. I’m was there try to take care of my own health. Able to make my own choice and decisions.
But there sat this mother and daughter duo in front of me, so frustrated, sad.
The mother, trying with the little bit of dignity she has left to have a tiny bit of control over her life. I hear her doing the angry whisper yell to her daughter.
“It’s my body!”
“I can still think for myself.”
“You treat me like a child!”
“You embarrass me, bossing me around!”
I could see the hurt in her sad, aging eyes. I could it in her voice. She was mad, but more than that she was in so much pain.
The daughter look more annoyed than ever!
“Mother, not here!”
“Who’s embarrassing who?”
Then the daughter pulled out her phone, completely ignoring her mother’s plea to regain the slightest bit of dignity, and just rolled her eyes.
As they approach the front desk, the daughter immediately took control of the situation.
The daughter stepped in front of her mother and leaned in to the front desk. She gave the first and last name, of her Mother, date of birth and time of the appointment. It was obvious she’s been doing this for awhile now.
The receptionist at the counter asked if they had checked in online and the daughter responded, saying “of course I did.”
She look back over her shoulder to her mother to tells her to retrieve her insurance card and her checkbook.
The receptionist said, ”oh, I don’t need any of that, I have it on file here.”
The whole time the Mother was trying to inch her way up to the the counter to see the receptionist, but the daughter would not have any of that!
Then receptionist responds by saying, “your copayment is $40 ma’am.”
The Mother goes to retrieve her checkbook, and as she goes to write out the check, she asked the receptionist, “do you have a stamp that you can finish my check?”
Again, the daughter interrupts her and says, “no, I believe it’s $45, not $40! Check again!”
I feel the same way the rest of the people in this waiting room feel, that are witnessing a sad tragedy from this mother daughter duo… Where you feel completely uncomfortable and someone needs to step in and save this unfortunate situation, but at the same time you wanna leave and not be witness to it any longer.
The receptionist also is aware of the uncomfortableness in the atmosphere, saying “no problem at all, let me double check on that copayment…. again.”
While the receptionist is checking on what the copayment is, the Mother and daughter start bickering again…
The mother is trying to explain that she would only be billed five dollars more if she wrote out the check for $40, she doesn’t understand why it has to be made into a situation? I have to be honest, I agree with her!
The receptionist response back, saying, “I see it’s only $40 here ma’am as your copayment.”
The mother goes back to finishes writing out her check, and repeats again, “I’m sorry, but do you have a stamp to finish my check again?” The receptionist stands up and says, “it’s no problem at all ma’am, I will finish off the check for you, just sign it.”
It was clear the receptionist could see how infuriated the daughter was now, and how desperate the mother was. So she took the time to explain the Mother’s insurance and the co-payment to the daughter, and how it all worked… just trying to calm the daughter down. Somethings she totally didn’t have to do. I don’t know if it worked.
Then both, the Mother and the daughter went to go sit down, and of course, the daughter pointed to the seat where the mother would sit and said, “sit here!”
Now I was sitting across for them, watching the elderly Mother rub her temples and try not to cry. The Mother’s eyes are glazed and if she was to blink, a tear or more would fall. Every now and then she’ll dabs a used tissue to her eyes as she tries to pretend that nothing was wrong. I feel her frustration and sorrow from across the room.
The daughter was pretending that nothing was wrong either. Maybe her plate is overwhelmingly full? I could see her just zoning off into her phone… it looks like she’s probably scanning through Instagram or Facebook but maybe she wasn’t?
Maybe she was doing what I was doing before I witnessed all this.
Handling school emails, doing the bills, scheduling appointments, returning phone calls, replying emails… oh my gosh…all the emails… returning text messages, trying to accomplish everything and really getting nothing done!
Doing everything that I can to try not to let anybody down! Maybe she’s raising multiple children, a husband, the CEO of a household, and trying to stay healthy somehow through it all. Now she’s also taking care of an elderly parents… I can only imagine the stress she may be dealing with. I’m sure it’s overwhelming.
Maybe all that weight on one person’s shoulders can make you look like a real bitch? But may be deep inside you really have a ton of love for that person?
I guess this is just one of the reasons why we should never really judge anybody, because you just never know what’s going on.
Either way sitting here watching these two does make me sad. I have a feeling they love each other very much. But right now they both probably feel overwhelmed, frustrated, and sad because the situation they are in.
SK
Journey Through Life's Magic 