Chicken soothes The Savage Beast

Our shift was not scheduled to begin for another 35 minutes, but we were getting prepared. We were preparing earlier than usual and with more intensity because we knew exactly what was about to go on when the shift started. We knew who was on their way to our floor.

Yes, we were already patiently waiting. In combat mode.

We had previously been sparsely briefed about the new admits that would be arriving that night.

The administration always seemed to schedule their arrival moments into our nightly routine.

And I would always ask myself {to myself}, why?

It was, by far, the most inopportune time to usher in "newbies", as we call them. Just as we would be getting into the groove of our nightly medicine passes and room checks, here they would come, large menacing orderlies, shuffling in a line up of 6, sometimes 8, new admissions to our floor and through our doors.

The 52nd floor.

They were all very sickly and markedly small in size.

In addition, sometimes, there were other conditions and issues.

Issues in addition to, is how those conditions were to be listed when charting and making notes.

Earlier that day, around 3 pm, there had been an emergency staff meeting called.

A mandatory, emergency staff meeting.

Myself {Treasure Tipton}, Jillian Marshingfeld, Serendipity Williams, DeMarion Burlingame and Churchill Lewis had all been summoned to the downstairs conference room by Miss Simone Connelly.

Miss Simone Connelly was the supervising floor coordinator this particular night.

She was not the most thorough when it came to filling us in on whom they were sending over to our facility. This night was not much different. "There's 8 tonight", she began, "6 little boys and 2 little girls and they're a mixed multitude." Which meant there were different ethnicities among the children.

Already seated in the downstairs conference room when we all arrived, was the legendary Mr. Dale Grantham.

The legendary Mr. Dale Grantham had been retired from the 12th floor for approximately 3 years. He began as a Bedside Companion and moved his way up to Floor Supervisor.

While he was Floor Supervisor, he enrolled in college. He completed all the required courses and became a nurse.

The legendary Mr. Dale Grantham was a nurse o the 12th floor for 43 years. He was in his 37th year when I came on board.

It was always a pleasure to work with him and to watch him with the children.

He was, is and will always be the epitome of an Angel of Mercy for many of the children who have passed through the hallways of Havenview Metzinger Psychiatric Hospital.

Havenview Metzinger Psychiatric Hospital is a privately funded children's psychiatric hospital. The 52nd floor is one of 36 specialty floors.

The 52nd floor specialty is Neurology. Neurological Disorders.

Epilepsy/Neuro-Diagnostics , Movement Disorders , Neuro-Behavior/Memory Disorders , Neuro-Immunology/Multiple Sclerosis , Neuro-Infectious Disease , Neuro-Muscular , Neuro-Oncology , Neuro-Ophthalmology , Neuro-Palliative Care and Neuro-Vascular/Stroke.

It is very hard to imagine children living with these disorders. And it is even harder to watch.

Long since retired but the legendary Mr. Dale Grantham would not and could not let the children of the 12th floor go.

He has become a permanent fixture. And we are thankful for him.

Especially this night.

On the long table in the center of the conference room were 8 piles of files.

8 piles of 6 files. 48 brilliantly colorful file folders.

The first folder I picked up was green.

It was the file of Jarrett M. Bachmeier. An 8 year old.

The second was bright blue.

It was the file of Micheal Stewart Kindalinsen. A 10 year old.

We all were reading different files so we would look up every once in a while and see that we were all near tears.

We would also occasionally switch file folders with one another when the reading of our current file folder became a bit overwhelming.