University of Virginia Library

Little of Everything

The nurse on duty, when asked
about the patients replied "they're
not all diabetes. There's a little bit
of everything."

How many nurses do you have?

I'm the only one."

When was this building constructed?

"1840." We were taken to the
women's' alcoholic ward. Most of
them had walking privileges and
were out. There was one patient,
though, who showed us the handicrafts
that the ladies made. You
could see she didn't get chances like
this too often in front of people.
One person put it "She answered
questions you didn't ask." In
general, it was cleaner and cheerier
in contrast to our previous stop.

The women's disturbances ward
was the closest thing they had to a
maximum security floor without
actually saying it. Our guide opened
up a steel wire door that led to a
dark hallway. She walked in slowly
and didn't make any kind of
gesture as to whether she wanted us
to follow or not. Finally, one
person followed her and the rest of
us did likewise.