Amazing Grace and the drone of the floor buffer

Today at the hospital I played for several patients in ICU.   A few of them were in isolation which means I have to sit right outside the door and not play inside their rooms because of infection control regulations.   So as I sat playing outside the door of one patient, there came behind me a loud buzzing sound. It was someone with a big machine buffing the floor. Normally, I get irritated by this kind of background noise but instead this time I listened carefully as the buffing/buzzing sound drew nearer to see what note the machine emanated.  It turned out to be G, so I improvised in the key of G and used the buffing machine as a drone just like a bagpipe. The result made me smile. How's that for going with the flow?

Next I was sent to a patient that wanted me to play Amazing Grace. I was sitting outside her door too (another in isolation) and played the hymn that she requested and improvised around this melody for quite some time. At one point, I looked behind me and there stood about 5 or 6 nurses and doctors watching and listening to me playing. It is quite something to play music in ICU and some new doctors/nurses really are amazed by this. 

The last patient I played for on that unit had two guards from the Dept. of Corrections outside the door. It appeared the patient was a prisoner. There were about 4 nurses and staff working with this patient in a very caring way. I was very struck with how they treated this person with complete equanimity. It is a rare thing I bet for a prisoner to be treated with such kindness.

I know people are down on hospitals a lot but I can tell you, I see examples of this kind of kindness all the time. It is one reason I go there even on days when I am a little down because it lifts me up to see this. Today was one of those days.