The Music in the Waiting Room of a Clinic

How music, IS a VITAL part of our lives!  Translated…

There’s that, grand piano located in the lobby of our hospital, every day at a set time, there would be the melodious music, sounding off.  And, my treatment office is directly adjacent to this piano, and the walls aren’t, sound-proof well enough, and after awhile, this music that came at set times during the day, became, the smallest sorts of blessings that my nurses and I received, as the time came, we’d all, waited for the music, waited for that lottery draw, guessing at what sort of music we might, hear today.

And the music doesn’t always sound like the piano, sometimes, it’s, chamber music, flute, and, there are those foreigners who’d, performed; as for the songs, varied, the contemporary pieces, the jazz, the nursery rhymes, the oldies, and, there’s also, the high technical classical, but, the songs that made the audience react the most, the ones that gained the most applauses, are the, oldies.

Sometimes, my nurses and I were so into it, and, we’d, sent a note: “you played wonderfully”, to the musician playing lonely on her/his own.  Once, the gentle and kind nurse, Wei had a blast, listening to the music, as she’d signed her name on that note, she’d even, sent in a request for a song, and wrote the title of the encore piece, then, went to deliver the note, and as she’d come back, she’d reported to me, “it’s a beauty in a nurse’s uniform who’s playing today!”

As I’d heard, I’d known, that it was, Shu-Yi, although she’s a higher up worker of the hospital, she’d still, shared her skillful piano skills with us.

But, as the concert ended, we’d not heard any of the requests for the songs we’d made; then, the door to my clinic swung open, the beauty came in, thanked us for the note, opened that note back up, looked again, and, without another word, went back to the piano, and played that encore we’d, requested.

As the outbreaks happened, the musical volunteers are kept out of the hospital, and, we lost that small blessing, and we’d all felt, a bit, loss, and we’d, started, complaining.  But, I had a thought, asking Meow, the nurse to help us out, “is it okay if I played the music using that stereo as I was putting the catheters into my patients?”

“Really?  Will that, work?”

“It’s all music, I don’t think it makes much of a difference, if the music came from a stereo or the piano next door!”

“Yeah!”, she’d, brought that small stereo over.

“Sir, what sort of music would you like to have on?” with her chiming voice, Meow asked.

“Why don’t you be the disc jokey, whatever you play, I’ll listen!”

“Really?  Then, I’m playing the ‘Forced Landing of Love’.”   Back then, the movie was, a H-I-T.”

“Haha!  Bring it on then!”

And so, I’d, listened to the soundtrack, six, seven times, and finally, I’d, complained, “Can you play something else, my ears are getting B-O-R-E-D here!”

“Then, what do you want to hear, sir?”

“You pick!”

I’d become, too curious, this nurse, who’s agile like a cat, who’d gone to the night clubs, what sort of music will she play for me?

She’d, searched through the sound files, and quickly enough, Baroque music came out, it’d not disturbed my sessions, nor was it, too out-of-place, it was, a perfect, MATCH to my treatment clinic.  I’d treated my patients, and felt awed inside, so, we have a nurse, with a hidden talent, she’s, an excellent, disc jockey too.

Later, as my treatment session started, I’d, waited for that lotto, curious, of what sort of music I am going to hear.  Most of the disc jockey/nurses like Pei-Hsien, Dai, Huei-Ru, usually selected the lighter, elevator music.  One day, the senior nurse, Hsuan-Hsuan was working with me, I’d started wondering, what sort of music might she play today?

And, shock!  She’d played the theme songs from the cartoons!  I was so shocked, having seen everything about life, from the cradle to the grave, she’s still, very young, at heart!

After awhile, everybody started, growing tired of the music, then, there’s, no more soundbytes from my clinic anymore.  And we’d all started, evaluating, the morning and evening an hour each of music in the lobby at the check-out, that’s, what’s, best then.

And so here, music played a vital role in people’s lives, like this physician’s found, and, he got a closer look into his nurses’ music preferences, and yet, in the end, he’d found, that music with soothing quality like the tunes you hear in the elevators going up and down, that’s, what fitted best, to the treatment sessions of a hospital.