To the Editor,
I’ll never be able to plug another hospital parking-lot meter without being instantly transported back to the moment of my mother’s death.
An RN (like myself), Mum had been through Hell after enduring “hallway-medicine” during a “Code Purple” (no beds) at Nanaimo Regional General Hospital (NRGH), being prematurely discharged, and then subsequently rushed back to the ER.
Unfortunately, her poor heart was so damaged that she lapsed into a coma and lay in palliative care for three days and nights.
After sitting vigil at Mum’s bedside, occasionally having to go out to let the dogs out of the car or feed the parking meter, I’ll never forget that bitterly cold January afternoon as I plugged in a loonie and looked skyward with the wry notion that Mum would likely choose to pass while I was out performing this ridiculous task.
Sure enough, I knew my Mum pretty well for the nurse met me in the hallway as I re-entered the building with the news that Mum had done just that.
Now I wonder as hurrying to be at their loved-one’s side is upper-most in their minds what better time to squeeze money out of people by demanding they pay to park like some kind of emotional extortion?
The health-care system needs the money? Then how about paying the parking authority with the money government presently saves providing health-care authority executives with a free parking bonus?
With their high salaries they can well afford to pay for their own parking, just like all their employees who pay for monthly parking from their own salaries.
Liz Stonard,
Port Alberni