Wednesday, May 11, 2011
From an anonymous blog kept by a Japanese nurse, as she spent 8 days caring for and providing assistance to victims of the tsunami and earthquake:
The Team Leader: "No matter what happens at the site, DO NOT CRY. We are not going there to express our sympathy. We are going there to provide nursing and medical care. If you think YOU want to cry, think about how much the people here want to cry. The tears of a rich medical team from Toyko will only be bothersome or even insulting to them."
The Nurse: "As the wind blows, a sepia-coloured photograph and a new year's greeting card with a picture of someone's baby come flying to my feet. And at every step or two, there is a red flag fluttering in the wind. A whole slew of flags - too many to even begin to count. These red flags are standing to mark places where bodies have been found."
"An old lady is standing in front of one of the flags. She might be about the same age as my own grandmother. 'Dear nurse from Tokyo, there was a house here that my husband worked so hard to build after the war. He never got sick once but now he's dead.'"
"It was impossible not to cry."
The blog reader: "There are many people whose homes have been swept away, their relatives swallowed up by the sea or saved. Knowing that you are there makes me feel better about not being there myself. It might make you angry to hear this, but please shed tears for all of those who have died."
After all this...
I am crying.
..signing off..
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