Miss Crim and the '98-ers

The crescendo of time's passing had brought four wizened little old men to a special ward in the Naval Hospital at St. Albans, New York, back in the late 1950's, when and where this writer was serving as Medical Resident.

They called themselves the "last leaves" -- they were all the remaining members of the army that carried on the Spanish-American war sixty years earlier. Petulant and profane by turns, they had come by necessity to the direct nursing care and monitoring their speech of a very special nurse. Miss Crim was a very good nurse, who cared for these charges as if they were her own grandfathers. In turn, the old gents picked her new name as "Miss Primm" when she made their swear-words off limits simply by looking as if they had hurt her. But the "last-leaves '98-er's loved her in their own measured way -- by saying "sorry, Ma'am." Then winking to one of the group.

The "flu" epidemic that year was mild, but the octogenarians who were the most susceptible, were hit like the crash ending of time. One heard little from them but their difficult breathing, and fever-ridden mumbling of cuss words even Miss Crim couldn't make out. Making medical rounds, I listened to their favorite question: "any of the other last leaves fall yet?" They would turn away and try to sleep when my reassurance let them know the Grim Reaper had not made his rounds as yet.

Then, one night when I was on call, the Dark Angel called all of them home -- a short shake of the tree of life brought the brown and fragile leaves fluttering heavenward, and they were gone. Miss Crim was devastated when she answered my call to notify her of their passing.

"All four of them?" she cried, and would not be comforted.

We all walked about our duties saying little, maybe humming some of their raunchy ditties -- but only when Miss Crim wasn't around. We learned something about the nature of our fellow-humans that day -- and the kindness of the Almighty when it shall come to be our turn to leave our own Miss Crim behind.

Notes from the Casebook

Of the "Greatest Generation,"

Maynard Lee Sisler