The Waiting Room

The hospital waiting room has a distinct smell. Disinfectant and fear and bad coffee. I've been sitting here for six hours.\n\nMy mother is in surgery. Routine procedure, they said. But when you're in a waiting room, every procedure feels like the end of the world.\n\nA woman across from me is knitting. She's been here longer than me.\n\n"Who are you waiting for?"\n\n"My daughter. She's having a baby."\n\n"How long have you been here?"\n\n"Twelve hours. But I'd wait a lifetime."\n\nAt hour eight, a doctor calls my name. "She's fine. The surgery went well."\n\nI cry. Right there in the waiting room.\n\nThe woman with the knitting smiles. "See? Worth the wait."\n\nWaiting rooms are terrible places. But they're also places of hope, of faith, of the stubborn refusal to give up. And sometimes, that's enough.