And so I did.

The place, stripped to a skeleton staff and now loosely populated by the permanent residents– most of whom were confined to wheelchairs of varying complication– was pretty empty. The days, now shapeless and free of plot, offered little and so I wandered hallway after hallway. Seeming more memory than music, the theme song to MASH drifted from one room I passed,

while another was antiseptic and empty but for Trump/Pence banners taped defiantly to the wall, and then through a doorway, I caught a glimpse of a nurse changing a patient’s tracheotomy tube– so intimate and tender as to be virtually erotic. Downstairs, scattered like islands, I came upon people who sat anchored and voiceless in wheelchairs, each one stationed near a window, watching.

There was a church service later in the morning that took place in the same space that hosted Bingo, Pub Night and all our other events. It was Catholic, which occasioned a few religious props being removed from a box and placed on a cafeteria table, and somehow this act was achingly beautiful.

A strong, elderly woman dressed all in black walked in, made the sign of the cross, and then nodded warmly to all who made eye contact. She went directly to a middle-aged woman who was frozen and strapped into a wheelchair, and touched her with a tenderness that exceeded language. Gently, she pulled a favourite sweater over her head, and then smiling,  began to brush her hair—a mother’s imperishable, radiant love, holier than a saint.

An impossibly old woman was reclined, almost prone, in a wheelchair. Blankets and knitted things covered virtually every inch of her body, and her skin was so very thin, her body so frail, that it seemed as if a soft gust might be enough to push her through the veil. A couple of hospital staff tended to her, telling her that her brother would be there any moment now. Her eyes flickered open at his mention, and as if surfacing through water she said, “Oh, I hope so,” and then she fell back down and in to sleep.

Ten minutes later a tall, elderly man, clearly ill himself, entered and sat stoically beside her. With a bible open on his lap he mumble-prayed along with the priest. He never touched her, nor did he say anything to her while she slept through the service, but it was clear that he was her brother. He was her tie to this world, the one now disintegrating around her into a living mist. Drifting in and out, all of time swirling around her, what version of her brother might she have hoped to summon, what memory returning in dream, what ghost to see her home?

Fun fact: The name Barbados is derived from the Bearded Fig trees once found in abundance on the island.

Fun fact: There are only three known ghosts on the entire island.

Fun fact: Barbados is the birthplace of Rihanna who lived here until the age of 16.

Fun fact: If a beach hustler with a gold tooth asks you if you want to buy a coconut or a seashell, he might mean cocaine or weed.

Fun fact: Bicyclists in Barbados do not wear helmets and shoes appear optional.

Fun fact: You will only see white women, as if in a movie they once saw, jogging on the beach.

Fun fact: Tiger Woods chose to have his wedding in Barbados in 2004.

Fun fact: Chickens roam as freely on the streets of Barbados as squirrels do in Toronto!

Fun fact: It is embarrassing to have your wife pull you to shore from an undertow when you were pretty sure you didn’t need any help at all, especially when cool looking locals playing dominoes were watching.

Fun fact: The people of Barbados have a long ingrained history of Christian principles.

Fun fact: Homosexuality is illegal in Barbados!

Fun fact: Some women in Barbados dress like superheroes– like those who wear capes and control the weather– for church on Sunday.

Fun fact: The middle-aged British women who sun on the beach all prefer reading crime mysteries to any other genre.

Fun fact: Sand crabs are faster and more perceptive than you’d think.

Fun fact: Finding an artificial flower petal washed-up on a gorgeous, dream beach is entirely dislocating.

Fun fact: The Six Million Dollar man is not a cultural reference widely understood by most Bajans.

Fun fact: Women who look like they might have worked at Coyote Ugly back in the day really enjoy the attention of beach hustlers.

Fun fact: Squid are also known as Seacat in Barbados.

Fun fact: Sometimes it is easy to mistake a night diver’s flashlight exploring the water just beneath the surface for sub-aquatic UFO activity.

Fun fact: In Barbados, one drives on the left side of the road, which is easy to forget, especially if you only have your Learner’s Permit.

Fun fact: Sometimes a monkey, as fast as a demon, will dart in front of your car.

Fun fact: Monkeys are not supernatural and can be killed upon impact with your car.

Fun fact: Monkey deaths are very upsetting.

Fun fact: The monkey face is very human and expressive and it is heartbreaking to see a dying one reach out to you with its little monkey hand on the side of a tropical road.

Fun fact: My wife can’t stop crying and I am pretty sure she now hates me.