Feeling Sheepish

Joan was a Licensed Practical Nurse at Frick Hospital in Mt. Pleasant, Pennsylvania. She was the perfect example of a good, old-world Italian daughter. Whatever her parents asked her to do something she was ready to do it. Joan had a reputation of being an unbelievably fastidious, spotless housekeeper. Let’s just say, Mr. Kleen had nothing on her. She would be on her hands and knees to scrub the cracks of her basement floor with a toothbrush. White leather furniture filled her family room. Everything was spotless and there are a myriad of tales about her cleanliness. This is one of them.

Joan’s parents lived nearby on a small farm and raised a few sheep. Her father asked her to haul two sheep to a local slaughter house. Hurrying to the farm, she helped him truss two sheep and toss them into the large trunk of her new red and white Cadillac. She told this tale to us one evening.

Later in the week, two young men that she hired to detail and wash her car brought a patient to the emergency department on an ambulance run. I pulled one of them aside and shared Joan’s story with them. I said, “When you talk to Joan, tell her you smelled sheep in the trunk of her car.” With a conspiratorial chuckle he sauntered over to Joan and said.” Joan, the last time I cleaned your car, I smelled something in your trunk.”

Joan put a hand to her breast looking mortified.

The paramedic continued, “It smelled like… sheep.”

Now she really looked upset. As particular as Joan was, I knew that she’d removed and cleaned the carpeting and mats from the trunk as soon as the sheep were unloaded long before she turned the car over to be detailed.

When she saw him smile, she glanced at me. When I was smiling too, she knew that I’d spoofed her. She let out a huge sigh and said, “You had me fooled. I thought that I had missed something when I cleaned out the trunk.”

I was correct. Joan did clean her own car before she allowed “the boys” to detail it.