{"id":2246,"date":"2008-03-03T23:12:53","date_gmt":"2008-03-04T07:12:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/of.jennism.com\/?p=2246"},"modified":"2008-03-03T23:12:53","modified_gmt":"2008-03-04T07:12:53","slug":"there-were-old-fashioned-red-seats","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/of.jennism.com\/?p=2246","title":{"rendered":"There were old-fashioned red seats"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>I opened the door, perhaps accepting my fate almost willingly.<\/p>\n<p>Empty waiting room with the red leather seats so different from the waiting room that I had just left.  It had an older feel.  I walked up to the counter.  The lady, pleasantly plump and somewhat old&#8230;was on the phone as was another person.  They had a cardboard box between them filled with pastries.  They seemed busy with the phone.<\/p>\n<p>I waited patiently and she lifted the phone from her ear.  She said not too pleasantly or too pleasantly, &#8220;May I help you?&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>I looked forward to relief and pushed forward my referral slip, &#8220;I was referred here by Dr. Velasco&#8230;&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>She replied, not looking at the slip, and said in a dull tone, &#8220;The doctor passed away yesterday night.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>I mumbled something in response, in shock.  She told me to go back upstairs to tell Dr. Velasco.  As I walked out back on the elevator, now the whole dilemma was dawning on me.  Not because of a doctor that died before I ever got to see him, but rather&#8230;life and death appears and disappears almost as if its own will.  Did he have a fulfilling life?  Treating patient after patient?  A hollow job of pain and guilt only amended by the great bedside manner he supposedly held.  In an office with a waiting room of old-fashioned red leather seats and gold trim?<\/p>\n<p>Tears don&#8217;t come for someone I don&#8217;t know.  <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I opened the door, perhaps accepting my fate almost willingly. Empty waiting room with the red leather seats so different from the waiting room that I had just left. It had an older feel. I walked up to the counter. &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/of.jennism.com\/?p=2246\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2246","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/of.jennism.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2246","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/of.jennism.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/of.jennism.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/of.jennism.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/of.jennism.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2246"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/of.jennism.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2246\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/of.jennism.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2246"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/of.jennism.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2246"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/of.jennism.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2246"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}