Hospital Food

It's been over three weeks since my last post. May took an unexpected turn with my eighty-one year old mom ending up in hospital for eighteen days. I was there with her for most of them. No one is happier than she is to be back home.

The hospital time provided me another perspective on food. For my mom and most of the patients sharing her room - and over the course of her visit she had several different roommates in the other three beds - meals became the hands of the clock, the cue for conversation and, from time to time, the source of some griping and grumbling. In fact, we could tie Mom’s recovery to her complaints about the food: the more she talked about the dried out sandwiches (there was one during the first week, which she ate anyway) and how they served her cauliflower at every meal (they didn’t, of course), the more we could see her progress.

For a few of the patients, food was problematic: either they were too ill to stomach anything at all; too weak or unsteady to lift the lid off their soup or peel the plastic wrapper from a tea bag; or completely unable to recognize the tray’s contents for the sustenance it offered.

The meals I saw delivered to my mom and her fifth-floor neighbours all had that nutritionally balanced, dietician-approved look. I am not sure exactly how they managed it, but the food arrived with the hot stuff still quite hot and the salad still cool and crispy. Must be some kind of hospital magic.

While the hospital food certainly did its job, Mom was very happy to get “outside” food. There were bananas and watermelon, some home baked goodies, and even fries and gravy brought to her as a Mother’s Day treat.

In most of the hospitals in my area, there is a Tim Horton’s outlet where visitors, staff and patients can buy beverages and baked goods. There was one on the main floor of the hospital my mom was at. We took it as a very good sign when, after almost two weeks in hospital, Mom chose to put on her own clothes and go with her visitors to Tim Horton’s for an iced cappuccino.

I do hope it will be a while until my next hospital visit. I look forward to spending more time in my kitchen and getting back to the blog.

Thanks for reading.