Hektoen International

A Journal of Medical Humanities

Tag: flowers

  • The flower lady

    Jonathan B. FerriniLa Jolla, California, United States Photos by author. The Flores Family Flower Shop was founded by my grandfather as a roadside stand. It has now been a favorite flower shop in San Diego for the past fifty years. Six days a week at 4:30 in the morning, I drive the truck to the…

  • Metastatic sarcoma

    Tulsi PatelChicago, Illinois, United States His big regret was never building his son a trampoline,now locked away in the shed like some treasure chest he can’t open.Eyes welling up, he says to me proudly, resignedly“16 tumors”before he coughs up a river of rotten red roses. On his chest I press my stethoscope down, softlyhe worries…

  • Vigil

    Terri EricksonPfafftown, North Carolina, United States In a care home in Göteborg, Sweden, my husband’s sister, Jensina, sits vigil at the bedside of their Aunt Astrid, who is dying. She holds her hand, speaks to her as if everything is as it was, the two of them talking in Astrid’s apartment, her sharp mind and…

  • On the banks of the Ganges

    Susan BeckFort Collins, Colorado, United States She told me how her brother diedin a screaming instant of metal and splintering windshield.She told me in the silence of the exam room,my brain let goof Latin names, syndromes,the architecture of molecules,which way sodium, and potassiumflow across the ghostly cell membrane. Prayers meant for the ears of gods…