My grandpa was admitted to Steve Biko Academic Hospital the morning of Dec 24th with gangrene in his toes as a complication of diabetes. My cousin Lee, an ICU nurse at one of the private hospitals in Pretoria, visited him that evening and had a look at his chart. His kidney function wasn’t looking good at all, he was delusional and shaking badly, and very very scared. She phoned my aunt, the night nurse in charge at another major private hospital in the country, and told her that grandpa wasn’t going to make it to the New Year… So yesterday I spent the majority of my waking hours at the hospital with grandpa. He was very emotional, crying when he saw us, and whenever one of his children phoned on Mom’s phone to talk to him. He hadn’t had a shave in a few days so in the afternoon I went by with shaving cream and a razor and shaved him. It was the first ever time I’d shaved a man. I don’t think I did too bad a job… I didn’t cut him once, and he’s looking pretty good now except for a few whiskers on his chin. All this time he looked in my eyes and we chatted calmly. He looked better than the day before, I think…

Grandpa is convinced that they’ve converted his flat on my uncle’s farm into the hospital. Initially we couldn’t understand why he’d say “These days they bring the hospital to your house”, but as I spent more time with him, I got the jist of it. He told me that he had cigarettes in the bathroom, and that he went to look for them in the morning but couldn’t find them. Also that they modified the ceiling of his ward during the night – that it was amazing, the speed at which they got things done these days. How he walked through the hospital during the day but wasn’t able to find Grandma – he seemed puzzled by her absence…

I’m thankful that we were able to spend so many hours with him yesterday – because it was Christmas, the staff gave visitors free access to patients. Usually they’re very strict about visiting hours. It would have been a very long and lonely Christmas day for him otherwise… In the evening Lee and her husband and baby came by again. Grandpa played with Zoey, and the two of them laughed like little children.

I’m also thankful that the hospital was in such good shape. Seven years ago when my dad died in the old Pretoria Academic hospital, it looked like something out of a horror movie… In this country we always joke that you have a better chance of survival at home than in a state-run hospital. Let’s just say that I was pleasantly surprised at what I was yesterday.

_{Pic of Grandpa taken 3 months ago}