The escape committee

4 of us in a ward with 6 beds. Of similar age. With jobs and homes and families. There was a plasterer with a suspected stroke. A commercial gasfitter with a shattered pelvis who had fallen off the roof of his thatched cottage. A bus mechanic with a hernia. And me with (and without) my gall bladder. We formed an immediate support group. I'm still wondering why it was so easy to do so - being very different people. Each of us had a separate family support group - each with a different style of support. But the visitors for each patient on the whole interacted with the other patients as well. I was offered food to be brought from home and a charger for the mobile. I hadn't expected that level of warmth and generosity. And it was all the more welcome coming at a difficult time.  We all managed to escape on the same day as well. Which was nice.