Writing Sample
Margaret’s life story came together over a two-year period. She enjoyed using a computer to capture her thoughts, and collecting all her memories in one place. She thought it a great legacy for her children and grand-children. Other readers might enjoy it as well. Look below for a few examples.
Sample Chapter #1
We had a security guard at work that got on my nerves so bad that I could not stand him. One evening I was on duty in E.R. by myself and I walked into the file room and there he was going through patient files.
There had been an article in the paper about him that day and the person was talking about the guard at Greenfield General being such a coward, and about how he dressed, always wore his pants too short, so he (the guard) was going to get the man’s phone number out of his chart and call him.
I caught him in the records and told him that medical records were confidential and that I would report him to Mr. Hager if he did not get out of the room!
He said he would go and tell him that I let the ambulance people in the files, and he would fix me up too.
This made me very angry and before I knew what I was doing I had him by the shirt collar and I actually threw him out the door, and I dared him to come back in.
He went to the main floor and told the charge nurse what I had done to him. I could not believe he would be such a coward and lie! That made me even madder! Around 3 am he came back to E.R again and said he wanted that number and he would get it too.
I jumped up and grabbed him and I kicked him all the way to the front door of the med center and I threw him out. I dared him to come back in.
Later the charge nurse on the floor came to E.R. and told me I would not have to worry about him anymore, that he had came to the floor and clocked out and went home and said he would not be back as long as I was there. I said, “if he knows what’s good for him, he won’t be back.”
I knew I should not be fighting at work, but I would do it again. I decided that I would wait til Mr. Hager came in at 8 am and ask him if he wanted me to stay home and tell him exactly what had took place. I then decided that I was not staying and telling him nothing, I had done nothing wrong.
I came home and I told Cyril what I had done and that Dexter (Hager) would probably be calling me. I went to bed and when I got up it was time to get ready for work and he had not called. I got ready and went on to work. I told Cyril that I would probably be back home because of the fight.
When I got to the hospital I expected to see Mr. Hager waiting on me, or if not him the Director Of Nursing, who was my boss.
No one was around anywhere, and I went on to find one of them and ask if I was to work or did they want me to go back home? I finally went into Mr. Hager's office and asked him about it.
He said, "just tell me what went on, I really don’t know much about it." He said the guard Chucky Black had called him and told him if he would make me apologize to him he would come back to work. Otherwise he would not be back.
When he said, this I told him I would go on back home, because if he expected me to tell Chucky I was sorry he would have a long wait. Right at that moment the phone rang and Mr. Hager excused himself to answer the phone.
When he hung up the phone he advised that he had received a call from the people cleaning out the office of Dr. Mark Goodall, he had to go there, the med center was in the process of buying the chairs that were in his office.
He advised me to go on to the emergency room and go to work. He said, “I will call you later about this matter.” I go ahead and clock in and go to work. It was getting late and I had still received no call from Mr. Hager or anyone else.
I could not figure out why they had not called me by now. I assumed since he had not called, I at least had a job and I was really not worried about it anyway. It is now around 6:30 pm and the phone rang. When I answered it was Mr. Hager.
First he said, “Margaret, you know you should not be fighting on company property.” I said I knew that, and that whatever he said I called him I did, and probably more too. He laughed, “Marg, the only problem I have with the whole thing is that you didn’t call me and let me be the referee.” I said if he shows up again and I am on duty, I won’t promise that it won’t happen again.
He told me not to worry, “he won’t be back anymore.” That was the end about the fight except for the teasing. Any time something went on they would all kid me and say, if you need help, “call Marg!”
This was not the first encounter I had with this guard. I had sprayed some fire extinguisher in his face one time before that. We always had cans sitting in every area that was like a can of spray paint, except it was to extinguish small fires if needed.
Sample Chapter #2
We arrived and had to get us another hotel. I am so amazed at the sights! Just imagine for yourself, if you had never been out of the state you lived in before and suddenly you have been in three states and see all the big, tall buildings!
And I thought Madison had a lot of city lights, I could not believe what I could see from the hotel rooms at night. I didn’t know there was lights that bright. I would just stand in the window and look out on the big cities, could this possibly be me, big fat Margaret in a big town like this? And as far as I knew I would be living in a big city like this! It was the 4th of July and Christmas all rolled into one.
We leave the next morning on our last day of travel. We will be in Enterprise before dark tonight. We stopped at a bus station and the driver said everyone could get off and use the rest rooms and get something to eat. We got off and used the restrooms and by now a lot of the people are getting back on the bus.
Cyril told me to go ahead and get back on and he would get us some sandwiches to take with us. I get on and more and more are boarding. I see the driver and he climbs on and he starts the motor, then I notice he shuts the door. I am thinking, where is Cyril?
What would I do if I missed him? The driver starts to pull out and I jump up and I start talking fast and loud and told him he had to stop, that my husband is not on the bus! He says, “lady, we can’t hold the bus, we are on a time table and we have to meet it!” About that time I saw Cyril running out of the bus station waving his arms and I told the driver, that was my husband! Would he please wait?
He slows down and by now Cyril is at the door and he lets him on.
I have wondered what would have happened to me that day if he had gone on without waiting, just what would I have done?
I had never been anywhere before and I didn’t know where I was going now. Cyril got on and he thanked the driver for waiting, then we went to our seats and I could hardly keep from crying, it scared me so bad. I had always been bashful but when I thought that bus was going to leave without Cyril, being bashful was not in my vocabulary.
We finally get to our town we will be living in and Cyril said we would have to get a hotel room again for the night, and we would go apartment hunting in the morning. It was too late to find anything tonight.
