The slings of outrageous fortune: * Anne is lifted gingerly from her hospital bed by cold machinery and kind hands
The nurses arrive, silent shadows,
hands sure, voices soft as cotton,
preparing the sling: straps unfurled, pulleys waiting,
a cradle of blue and white,
hope woven in webbing.
Anne lies still,
her body slight as dusk,
eyes flicker, searching for light beyond the window.
Nurses slip gentle arms beneath her,
lift with slow precision,
weight redistributed
across the sling’s patient embrace.
She rises, momentarily untethered,
drifting from bed to chair,
the world shifting beneath her,
a brief hush of movement.
And I see that she’s not only carried,
but held, attended, allowed
a soft awakening, a breath,
and my gratitude settles quietly in the room.
The phrase “the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune” is spoken by Hamlet in William Shakespeare’s play Hamlet. In his famous soliloquy, Hamlet is contemplating the hardships and misfortunes that life brings, questioning whether it is nobler to endure these difficulties or to take action against them. The “slings and arrows” metaphorically represent the many pains, injustices, and challenges that one faces, as Hamlet ponders the value of perseverance versus seeking an end to suffering.
On one level, the sling employed by palliative care ward nurses to gently transfer Anne, whose body is bound by the devastating effects of brain cancer (glioblastoma), from her hospital bed to a wheelchair, stands in stark contrast to Hamlet’s “slings and arrows of outrageous fortune.” While the hospital sling is a tool of compassion, offering support and dignity amid physical helplessness, Hamlet’s metaphorical slings and arrows represent the cruel hardships and injustices that fate hurls at us, echoing the incomprehensible odds that such horrors should beset someone as vulnerable as Anne. In both cases, the sling is a vehicle for coping: one for assisting the body, the other for grappling with the existential burdens imposed by life’s relentless tragedies.
My darling Anne stands as a testament to the human spirit, beset by the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune in the cruel lottery of life. The odds that any of us might be felled by glioblastoma – a ruthless, implacable disease – render her plight all the more tragic and undeserved, yet her courage shines through even as fate deals its harshest hand.
Your friend,
Robert
https://robertmcbrydeauthor.com/
If you feel like keeping track of Anne’s cancer journey, I’m chronicling it in prose and poetry here:
https://robertmcbrydeauthor.com/news/
