A fine specimen of….what?

Guest Post by former Activities Assistant, Ben Heit

So something needs to be brought to light: one can not get trumpet valve oil analyzed at the Grand Forks Clinic! It was a quite day at St. Anne’s Guest home and the Activity Department was gearing up for the next big party! In the mean time, I was called to the front office by one of the nurses on duty. “Ben,” they asked, “Could you take a urine sample over to the GF Clinic for us?”

Well, I was a new employee, and I was eager to help out in any way. I said “Sure, where is it?” It was at the front desk waiting for me. At the main desk, I asked the receptionist if she had the sample and she said, “Oh this must be it.” She had a baggy with a bottle in it, kind of dirty and not really marked. I, being new, I didn’t really know better!

So, off I went to the clinic with the my “Urine Sample.” I arrived at the clinic and approached the lab desk, announcing to them who I was and what I had for them (very proudly). They looked at me like I was crazy and said “What…is…that?” Dirty bag, oily bag, no name, no bio-hazard markings…and I think it might have had musical notes on it. Right, I should have caught THAT! I apologized and started my trek back to St. Anne’s thinking, “Hmmmmm, is it ‘Play-a-trick-on-the-new employee Day’?” I marched into the Nurse’s office and asked the nurse on duty…What is this???? She looked at me and said, “I have no idea, but the urine sample is in the fridge!??

Right at that moment, Sr. Elaine, with a puzzled look on her face, just happened to look in; all she saw was me and the bag I was holding. Her eyes were locked on the oily bag in my hand, like a spot light in the theater and all she said was “THERE IS MY TRUMPET OIL!”- pretty much like she hadn’t seen it in years!!! I am glad I could reunite her with her much-treasured, almost analyzed valve oil!

How it all happened, as she described later, is that she set it down in the office; she left, and I came in grabbed it… and off I went, she came back just a few seconds later and, hmmm, valve oil is now gone!!

I want to say the trumpet vavle oil never looked healthier!! We laughed about this for many, many years and it was one of the great moments of working at St. Anne’s!

Editor’s Note: When sending birthday greetings to Sr. Elaine, he made reference to this comical event, which I then asked him to re-tell on “The St. Anne’s Scoop.”