Alex Frederickson
Bio
I am a former psychiatric nurse, passionate about writing, people, photography and telling stories from real life.
Stories (9)
Filter by community
For The Love Of Nana And Her Love Of Broken Knickknacks
You know it’s going to be you and me who’ll have to shift this crap when she’s gone, don’t you?” These were the words, muttered to me under her breath by my nana’s youngest daughter as Nana proudly showed us her newest acquisition.
By Alex Frederickson4 years ago in Humans
“Don’t Talk To Me From The Next Bloody Room!” (Part two of two)
I leave the audiology department that day with three things I didn’t have before: An audiologist I truly believe will do his best to treat me as an individual. I love how he explained my rather unusual audiogram to me, which explains why I can hear birds singing but not people’s voices. Talk about a lightbulb moment!
By Alex Frederickson4 years ago in Confessions
„Don’t Talk To Me From The Next Bloody Room!“ (Part one of two)
Picture it, Sicily, 1921…not a Golden Girls fan? Ok, skip the joke! No seriously, picture the scene: It’s 1977 and I’m an 11 year old on my first school trip abroad. We’re in Amsterdam. I’m standing at the back of the group and our teacher is telling us about the arrangements for the next day. Strange, I can’t hear him properly. I grab my friend and pull her to the front. Ah, that’s better.
By Alex Frederickson4 years ago in Confessions
You Are My Sunshine
Although we lived in the same street, I didn’t know the elderly Dutch lady who was currently fighting to pull up the stubborn weeds taking over her front garden on a blistering hot summer’s day, but I squatted beside her and began to help. What neither of us knew, was that we were both very hard of hearing, and, twenty minutes later, as she thanked me and invited me to join her for coffee, I simply smiled, picked up the bag of garden rubbish and bade her farewell. I hadn’t heard her invitation.
By Alex Frederickson4 years ago in Humans
Why We Must Always Take Sides
When asked what she had learned from the Holocaust, Susan Sontag said: “10 percent of any population is cruel, no matter what, and 10 percent is merciful, no matter what, and the remaining 80 percent can be moved in either direction.”
By Alex Frederickson4 years ago in Humans
Back The Way I Came
Draining the dregs of my coffee, I glanced up at the clock. The night staff would be here in less than twenty minutes. It was almost time. It had been a typical shift, and we’d been busy right up to the end. Three new admissions, group therapy, the consultant’s round, dinner and then visiting. The last visitors had only just left and I’d had to escape to the office to write the report.
By Alex Frederickson4 years ago in Humans
Suicide Is Not Painless!
It’s Tuesday evening and an elderly lady drives her car from the brand new assisted living flat she moved into a month ago, to a bridge over the fast flowing river that runs the length of the valley. She parks up and what exactly happens next we will never know.
By Alex Frederickson4 years ago in Psyche
