Who: Bridget and David What: Awww, meetings! When: Sunday afternoon Where: Hospital in New Jersey
Bridget wasn't scheduled to work at the hospital today, but the vet office she worked in was closed and she had nothing else to do. It was sit at home and talk to her animals, or go in to the hospital she volunteered at and talk to some actual people who could do with her company.
She had gone to church in the morning, though she didn't really care for the religion. It was mostly for the company. Then she drove in to the hospital, parking in the public parking lot so as not to take a spot from one of the rostered volunteers. Then she made her way into her ward, the usual smile fixed to her face. She would never quite let on how much it hit home to be around people who were struggling with head injuries. Those that had lost memories reminded her of her mother. It was why she wanted to be with them. To make up for never being there for the woman who had raised her.
"Bridgey!" one of the nurses called out to her the moment she walked in the door. "Oh, thank goodness. You're Welsh, right?"
Bridget blinked in surprise and then she nodded. "I think that's the first time anyone ever thanked goodness for it, but yes. I'm Welsh. Are you doing a crossword, Samantha?"
Samantha swatted Bridget's arm. "Heavens no! We have a new fellow in and no one can understand him. We think he's speaking Welsh. Could you try to talk to him?"
Bridget waved at a few of the patients she knew very well as they passed the common room and then she took Samantha's hand, since the nurse was clinging quite hard. "Of course I will."
On the way to the patient's room, the circumstances of his injury were described to Bridget, and her face twisted in horror. It sounded like the poor man had been through something terrible. And they didn't have any way to identify him.
When they entered the room, Samantha introduced Bridget, since the poor man seemed to have little trouble understanding English, he just didn't seem to speak it. "This is Bridget, she's a volunteer here. She speaks Welsh."
"It's...fine, Sam," Bridget said calmly. Then she stepped forward and smiled at the poor man in the bed and she said in Welsh, "Hi there. My name is Bridget. How are you feeling today?"
It was like being spoken to by angels. His face brightened and he looked up at her like she was his personal saviour.
"Oh thank you! I've felt so useless," he replied, reaching out for her hand. "I am sure I can speak English, I just can't make myself do it." Bridget had a gorgeous smile, he thought, and found himself smiling back like it was contagious.
Bridget grinned and she waved Samantha away. "I'll come get you if I need you, Sam," Bridget said, and then she took a seat by the man's side so she could chat with him. She held the hand he had offered, trying to warm it with hers.
"It's alright," she continued in Welsh. "You can talk to me now. Do you know your name?"
At that, his face clouded. "They've been calling me John Doe. I can't remember. I can't remember anything before I woke up yesterday." He looked distraught, his hand going to the bandage on his head. "They said they pulled me out of the river and I'm lucky to be alive. I had hypothermia when they found me. I'm okay from that now, but still..." There was a knife wound on his arm and stitches in his head, and he had no idea how he'd got either of them.
"It's alright," she soothed, holding his hand just a little bit tighter. "We can give you a name for the time being, until you remember. Let's see..." Bridget chewed on her lip for a moment before she grinned and said, "how about Iwan?" It was the Welsh name for John, but it also meant 'God is gracious' and if he was being told he was lucky to be alive, if he believed in God then God certainly had been gracious.
"Iwan," he said, experimenting with the name. It didn't feel any more of less familiar than any of the other names he'd been trying out in his head. Why not? He smiled again.
"Pleased to meet you, Bridget. My name is Iwan." He paused, and then shrugged. "It's a start! Do you come to bestow names to all the people you talk to?"
"Sometimes," Bridget said with a smile. "It depends on if they want a name or not. Some people want to wait until they remember." Then Bridget frowned as she realised something slightly troublesome. "Sometimes things come back and talking about them helps more memories build up. I'm going to tell the nurses that you can call any time if you remember something." Otherwise it would be Iwan speaking to the nurses in Welsh while they stared at him worriedly, hoping he wasn't having a fit.
"I don't like being nameless. It's like I've lost my- my direction. Or something. I want something to call myself." Iwan squeezed Bridget's hand, appreciative of her patience. "Thank you. That is very kind. Do you work with the head injuries here often?"
"I do," Bridget nodded. "I'm just a volunteer, but I've been coming in here for a few years now. Do you need anything, Iwan? Are you hungry or cold? How do you feel?" Best to get the important questions out of the way first since this was likely why Sam would have sent her in here. Samantha wanted to know if there was anything a nurse should be doing. Beyond that, Bridget would just keep him company.
"Well, I have a sore head," Iwan replied, patting the bandage gently. "I have a slice in my arm. I don't have a chill or a fever and I seem to be able to do just about everything except make myself understood. I wish I could speak out to people. I don't understand why I can mostly understand English but not speak it." He felt a little worried by this failing on his part, like there was a piece of him missing that wasn't just his entire life.
"I'm sure you'll remember how soon," Bridget said. "Sometimes it just takes a little while. I'll listen to anything you want to say though," Bridget said, patting his arm.
"I-" He stopped, and shook his head. "I don't know. I don't have much to say at all. I know that I can walk and talk and where I am and what the world looks like, but I don't remember ever seeing it or doing anything, or... I wish I could remember what's happened to me." Iwan sighed, shifting a little in the bed. He was all over bruises and he felt stiff and sore, but he was lucky not to have anything broken.
"These things take time," Bridget soothed. "Sometimes we don't remember things because our brains are protecting us." Other times, it was because mother nature was a bitch, but Bridget tried not to dwell on that.
"In the meantime they will try to match you to any missing person reports, which means that you may get answers soon enough anyway."
Iwan looked up hopefully. "Do you think so?" He smiled at that. Then he paused, wanting to ask a question but not sure how to phrase it. "Can you- please teach me a little English? Just until I remember? I have to be able to talk to the doctors if I need help."
"Of course I can!" Bridget said, pleased to be doing something helpful and productive. "What would you like to be able to say. I can write it down if you like, with the Welsh beside it."
"Oh, that'd be helpful." Iwan told Bridget a few phrases like "I hurt here" and "I need the bathroom" that he thought might be useful, and repeated them back in English when she said them. He didn't quite remember how to say them, and he had a heavy Welsh accent, but he picked it up quickly enough.
When he had them done, the paper safely next to him on his table, he gave Bridget a nod and looked at her, the look he once had given to his people and his priests when he was truly listening to them. "Enough about me for a while. I want to know about you. You have more to tell, I'm sure."
Bridget smiled warmly at him and she shrugged. "I don't know how interesting I am, but I don't mind talking about me! What do you want to know? The normal things? I grew up in Caernarfon, but I wanted to be an actress so I studied theatre here and now I'm a veterinary nurse," she said with her usual good humour. "And I volunteer here on my days off."
Iwan chuckled, then winced and held his sides. "Oh don't make me laugh, it hurts," he groaned. "I don't think there's a part of me that isn't bruised. So a vet nurse? And you still find the time to volunteer? That's really good of you."
"Oh, I'm sorry!" Bridget said, squeezing his hand. "You poor thing. I will try to be very sombre from now on," Bridget said, looking as serious as she could. "I only work part-time as a vet nurse. And I don't really have much else to occupy my time. I don't have family here, so it's just me and my pets." Bridget brightened up talking about her pets.
Bridget putting on a serious face made Iwan smile. "You're very thoughtful, thank you," he said, nodding equally seriously.
Of course she had pets, being a vet nurse, and it sounded like she lived alone, so they'd keep her company. "Pets plural! How many do you have?" He wondered briefly if he'd had pets before, and if anybody was feeding them now if he did.
"I have a houseful," Bridget laughed. "I have a parrot, two lovebirds, four cats, two dogs, and a lizard who is appropriately named 'Mr Grumpyface'. He likes to bite things. So by putting his personality in his name, it keeps people from trying to pet him and losing fingers."