In Round Eyed in Surprise

When I made rounds as nursing supervisor, I was often asked to look at photographs of weddings, vacations, new babies, children, and grandchildren. I was able to share events of their families through their own eyes and it was nice to be able to see just a bit of their lives away from a work setting.

One incident stands out as the most vivid and shocking photograph I can recall seeing. A nurse asked me to look at her vacation pictures. She’d gone on a cruise spending several days on a Caribbean island. She invited me to look at her photographs, I felt obligated, because I always tried to make time with any staff member to do a quick review. It was a way for me to connect with them and with the things important to them.

Her photographs were beautiful of sand, sea, trees, and flowers. I was casually flipping through the pictures until I saw what seemed to be a picture of a man, but I could see bare breasts. The person was raised up from the sand on elbows with breasts dangling inches from the sand. They were completely exposed. The person had wide buttocks that were squeezed into a pair of “Daisy Duke” cut off jeans.

I was about to ask who this person was, when I had to bite my tongue. I recognized the face in the photo. It was the nurse who’d gone on vacation and who’d taken the pictures.

This nurse had a square, manly face. She had large hips, legs, and thighs.  She was the last person I expected to see in a pair of short cut-offs shorts and being bare breasted.

When I looked up, all of the other nurses in the unit were all watching me. They saw my face going from puzzlement to a sudden recognition, then astonishment, already knowing the picture that was lurking and what photograph I’d just seen. They were just waiting to see my reaction.

I am still puzzled why a person would keep a picture like that in with her other photos or why would she allow me and her co-workers to see it? She wasn’t afraid to show me her photographs, but I was afraid I’d never be able look at another set of her pictures without fear and trepidation.

One of the nurses later said to me, “I knew exactly when you saw that picture and exactly when you recognized who it was in the photograph. Your face reddened and you shook your head.”