The Urban Resident

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  • The Resurrection

    The nurse, the wife, the niece, and I sat together in the small family room, quietly thinking.  I felt insulated from the sounds of the busy hospital even as my pager chirped a warning that our ICU was about to get even busier.  I resisted the temptation to sit on the edge of the seat and betray the anxiety I felt…

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  • Brown and Bubbles: Why Ferguson and Wilmington Are Alike

    “Hey, Bubbles has a gift for you.  He’s been looking for you, since you saved his life,” my neighbor said casually.  I was somewhat surprised; Bubbles (not his real street name) was a young man whom I met while administering first aid for an injury sustained on my block.  Bubbles had a critical wound to his chest, and…

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  • Betrayal

    Baxter was named after a Puritan minister, and I am faintly amused by this memory when I hear him yowl through the bathroom door or when his claws clumsily scrabble across our faux-wood floor.  He is not quite as cute now, in the sense that his kitten-like actions are more coordinated though less graceful and less innocent.  Playful nips at our fingers now threaten to break the skin,…

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  • Despair

    “He wasn’t a big time drug dealer or anything, you know? He didn’t have anything worth taking. I knew him.”  My neighbor stopped for a moment, clearly shaken and deeply unnerved.  “Why did this happen to him?  We grew up together…” His voice faded and we sat in silence. It was twilight in summer and one of those ordinary and warm and therefore…

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  • Should We Pray With Patients?

    The patient was abruptly, unexpectedly, and neurologically devastated, leaving his family stunned and grief stricken.  There was little else for the ICU team to offer, even as we worked to do everything physiologically possible to sustain life.  It was late at night and as we stood in the room listening to beeping monitors and the…

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  • Kittens

    The morning was brisk and crisp and bright.  I tugged the door tightly shut behind me.  Already late, I fumbled for my keys and rushed down the short walkway to my car.  I was not expecting to see the two bundles of fur that nearly blended into the gravel.  They trembled in the  early fall…

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