Not Hollow

Out Of The Hollow Branch. Pigment ink on 14"x17" Bristol Board

A meme is a cultural practice or idea, that is transmitted verbally or by repeated action from one mind to another. It originated from the from word Greek mimēma, meaning something imitated, from mimeisthai, to imitate. So it's like a chain reaction. Talking about chain reaction there's one about to happen above. Can see it? Click on the image to enlarge to see what triggered it. This was an illustration I made for the Illustration Friday prompt "Hollow". It isn't so hollow anymore, is it?

I can't help it. What was intended to be simple ended up like this in a matter of 24 hours. Deborah, Midlife Poet tagged me for a meme to share six secrets about myself. She did not start it, she was only tagged. And so she selected me. I must say it's an oxymoron, for how can I share six secrets, they won't be so secret anymore, right? So I'll do my best to enumerate some facts that sound so secret and mysterious when really, they are not, but these are some of the things that punctuate my world:

1. I once assisted a woman in delivering her baby in a hospital elevator full of people. You think the elevator is full and there is no space until someone delivers a baby. It's amazing how ten people could get so cramped in a corner while the woman and I had all the room to deliver her baby! I also helped a woman deliver her baby in the backseat of an SUV.

2. I was seventeen years old when I wrapped the first dead child I had for a patient. He had marasmus kwashiorkor. He was literally skin and bones with an edematous abdomen. Prior to hospitalization he had nothing to eat and apparently was eating dirt as in sand and the ground for two months. That summer, I heard the mothers' wails in the halls whenever a malnourished child died. Everyday there was a child dying. When I close my eyes I still see myself walking the halls and I remember the stench.

3. I will give the shirt off my back, but I hate being taken advantage of and I definitely will not stand for abuse. I have literally stripped my clothes. Once I visited some relatives in the Philippines, one of them liked my shoes. It was my only walking shoes. I gave them to her anyway. She gave me her flip flops. Then another cousin liked my shirt and even though I was already wearing it, she really wanted it so she gave me a clean t-shirt that was an advertisement for an auto parts supply and we swapped shirts. Then a niece liked my blue jeans and I took it off and they gave me a pair of cotton poplin pants. It was checkered and looked like pajamas. They liked everything I had including my lipstick and sunglasses. After the visit, I had no money left and they had to give me ten pesos for the fare because I rode the public transportation which was a jeepney. I looked like a sugarcane field laborer except I was wearing lipstick and had nice hair so people in the jeepney stop or "paradajan" gave me strange looks. I got off the corner from my parents house and walked towards their home. The neighbors recognized me but were puzzled by my outfit. When the maids opened the gate they did not recognize me at first but they knew what happened. My mother was not very pleased with my relatives for stripping me but I told her that I was the one who gave my clothes away. Anyway during that visit, I had a full suitcase of clothes and came back to the US with only a carry on handbag and some presents for the children. My sisters had to give me clothes and shoes so I would look decent for my return flight and also gave me money.

4. I had my internship as a rural health nurse in the mountains when I was nineteen years old. There I met a 34 year old Chinese millionaire who owned everything (gas stations, bus lines, shipping line, grocery stores, auto parts stores, movie theaters, who knows what else). He was a bachelor. He asked me to marry him but I did not love him. It was also during that internship where I met so many poor people, in poverty. I made many home visits and sometimes people's homes would be a one room shack. I was called to see a sick woman. When I got to their house she had hemoptesis and was coughing up bright red blood. She was so skinny, she almost looked like a skeleton. I had her admitted to the provincial hospital's TB pavilion but she died a few weeks later. I was so afraid that the family might blame me for her death!

.

5. I had a classmate in high school who was very smart. She was a Math whiz. She and I were very good friends throughout high school. During one of my visits back home my husband and I went to the beach and stopped by a roadside hut selling cool drinks. The woman who tended the store looked very familiar. Her eyes reminded me of my classmate. The woman also kept on staring at me and for a while we just looked at each other. She looked very familiar and my heart was pounding. I did not recognize her because she had no teeth and she looked destitute but I acknowledged her with a nod and a faint smile. She just looked away. Her face haunted me and the following day I talked to my younger sister's classmate who was then the school principal and asked her is she knew the woman. It was my friend. I felt very sad . I think she recognized me but she looked away. I think I wrote about this before.

.

6. While assisting a delivery, it took the woman a very long time for the afterbirth to be expelled so I just sat there waiting and holding on to the cord. Then she expelled the placenta right flat on my face when I least expected it! My OB clinical instructor told me it was my baptism by fire! I had to take an emergency shower.