The Hospital Loading Dock Ramp

I'm a bus person but sometimes I have to drive to work and on those days I purposely walk up the narrow steep ramp of the hospital loading dock.

That dock is where the funeral homes leave with the bodies. The deceased loved ones of family and friends who stay crying in the hallways the waiting rooms the cafeteria the parking lots long after their loved one goes down the ramp.

They don't want to leave the building they don't want to leave the last place their father child spouse grandma friend mentor was alive.

That ramp is sacred. That ramp separates alive from dead. Walking up you are alive; rolling down you are dead.

So sometimes I'm really glad that I'm a bus person and don't have to contemplate my death so early in the morning. While other times I look forward to driving and focusing on living this day knowing that one day I'll be going the other direction on that ramp.