Hey, it was an honest question!!

My father-in-law has been in the hospital since December 4th (with a brief 3-day discharge in the middle) and will hopefully be able to go to rehab today or tomorrow. He has a variety of illnesses at this point, and, like with my dad, this extended hospitalization is making him a bit loopy! We've had some interesting conversations with him the past week or so, but this is one of my favorites. As a prologue, he is in a fairly new hospital in Fremont. However, he's convinced he's in a hospital in a city where he previously lived for 54 years. He knew where he was the first couple of weeks of his hospitalization, but not so much anymore.

Pop: You know, I remembered that a few years back I had a family member in this hospital - don't remember who it was, but I came to visit.

Me: Oh, really. Was it one of your brothers?

Pop: No, I don't think so. But I'm pretty sure it was a H******* (that's his last name). I asked a couple of the nurses if they remembered a patient named H******* but they didn't. (he seemed genuinely surprised by this)

Me: Yeah, well, that might be hard for them to do. I'm sure they have several thousand patients a year here.

Pop: Oh, right, probably. But H******** isn't a common name so I thought maybe they would remember.

Me: When was this?

Pop: Oh, back in the 50's or 60's!!!

Me: (trying not to laugh) Pop! Most of these people weren't even BORN in the 50's or 60's!!

Pop: Wll, yeah, that's a good point.......