A Friend of Bill's
No, not that one. The President Bill. . . .
When President Clinton first took office, healthcare was on his agenda. Oh, those were the days. I practiced my writing skill by writing a letter to Hillary - she had just taken care of her father as he was dying. I wrote about caring for Mom and how, in Romney, West Virginia, there was little home care to help me. Evidently my writing struck a cord with someone in one of the lower level offices and I was invited to speak to the President, Vice President, Mrs. Clinton and Mrs. Gore at the Rose Garden. I know it was a photo-op for the new administration - I have the photo to prove it. But, gee whiz, the White House had called. I, of course, went. That is another story entirely. This story is about my Pop.
Pop still lived in Romney after Mom died. Pop went to the VA hospital in Martinsburg, West VA, 50 miles from his home. Pop needed a graph of an aortic aneurysm, but also needed a cardiac cath to see if he could live through the surgery. The VA sent Pop to the VA Hospital in Washington, D.C. for that. It happened to be the Friday after I had met with the President. I was back in Washington and in Senator Wofford's office watching Bill Clinton address a joint session of Congress. I had hit the big time! Uh-huh.
The next day, a Saturday, before driving back to Pennsylvania, I stopped at the hospital to check on Pop who had gone through the cardiac cath without a problem. They told me he was scheduled to go home on Monday on the VA Bus to Martinsburg, where a friend was ready to meet him to take him the last 50 miles to Romney. I went home thinking that everything had been taken care of. WRONG! When I got to Easton, I called the hospital in DC only to find out that Pop was on the bus to Martinsburg with no way to get to Romney.
I raised Holy Hell. I called the VA Hospital in DC administrator. I followed up with a letter which was copied to Senator Wofford, the Head of the VA, and Clinton's health care administrator.
Several weeks later Pop was going through the aneurysm surgery in Martinsburg and I was there - waiting for him to get out of the recovery room. I decided to go to the nurses' station to check on his whereabouts and before I could say anything, I heard this exchange:
"Is Tornese out of recovery yet?"
"No, not yet. And he better come down in one piece. His daughter is a friend of the President's."
I never corrected her.
Pop lived for several more years with his aorta of mesh.
When President Clinton first took office, healthcare was on his agenda. Oh, those were the days. I practiced my writing skill by writing a letter to Hillary - she had just taken care of her father as he was dying. I wrote about caring for Mom and how, in Romney, West Virginia, there was little home care to help me. Evidently my writing struck a cord with someone in one of the lower level offices and I was invited to speak to the President, Vice President, Mrs. Clinton and Mrs. Gore at the Rose Garden. I know it was a photo-op for the new administration - I have the photo to prove it. But, gee whiz, the White House had called. I, of course, went. That is another story entirely. This story is about my Pop.
Pop still lived in Romney after Mom died. Pop went to the VA hospital in Martinsburg, West VA, 50 miles from his home. Pop needed a graph of an aortic aneurysm, but also needed a cardiac cath to see if he could live through the surgery. The VA sent Pop to the VA Hospital in Washington, D.C. for that. It happened to be the Friday after I had met with the President. I was back in Washington and in Senator Wofford's office watching Bill Clinton address a joint session of Congress. I had hit the big time! Uh-huh.
The next day, a Saturday, before driving back to Pennsylvania, I stopped at the hospital to check on Pop who had gone through the cardiac cath without a problem. They told me he was scheduled to go home on Monday on the VA Bus to Martinsburg, where a friend was ready to meet him to take him the last 50 miles to Romney. I went home thinking that everything had been taken care of. WRONG! When I got to Easton, I called the hospital in DC only to find out that Pop was on the bus to Martinsburg with no way to get to Romney.
I raised Holy Hell. I called the VA Hospital in DC administrator. I followed up with a letter which was copied to Senator Wofford, the Head of the VA, and Clinton's health care administrator.
Several weeks later Pop was going through the aneurysm surgery in Martinsburg and I was there - waiting for him to get out of the recovery room. I decided to go to the nurses' station to check on his whereabouts and before I could say anything, I heard this exchange:
"Is Tornese out of recovery yet?"
"No, not yet. And he better come down in one piece. His daughter is a friend of the President's."
I never corrected her.
Pop lived for several more years with his aorta of mesh.
posted by Mitzi at Tuesday, November 30, 2004
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