The Immigrants' Reality

Inpatient

When the sedative wore off, Anna sleepily looked around.  She lay in a

cot in a hallway lined with other cots with women asleep in them, others

 awake and mumbling.  Anna shrank under the sheet.  She felt very hungry,

and peering sideways, spied a small table with a metal plate and cup and

an apple next to her cot.  She gingerly reached for the plate, pulling it

under the sheet with her.  There was a thick slice of buttered bread, which 

Anna devoured in seconds.  She gulped down the water in the cup.  As she

grabbed the apple, a woman in a long white dress and apron, the ties

flowing from her back like tails, strode toward her.  She wore a hat that came

to points on either side like horns.  Anna lay still, but it was too late. The

woman approached her, and said, “I see you’re awake now, Anna.” 

Anna saw a devil disguised as an angel, like it said in the Bible. 

She was in hell!  In hell!  

Anna screamed and screamed. She didn’t hear the woman say she was

a nurse, didn’t hear her call for help.   Hands were holding her down!

Hands were tying her down!  Something jabbed her arm.

 ***

Mary waited at the door for Stephan and John to return to the farmhouse.

She had braced herself for the inevitable.  Mary knew her daughter,

understood that Anna was unwell.

“How is Anna?  Are they keeping her at the hospital, Stephan?”

“Mary, Dr. Jones said that Anna suffers from a serious mental illness.

 He is sending her to a state hospital for the insane to find out what

is wrong and how to help her.”

“Oh, Stephan…insane?”  Mary wept.  “Where is the hospital?  When will

she come home?”

“The hospital is a long distance away.  We will receive regular reports

by mail about her progress,” said Stephan, more calmly than he felt.

***

A warm tranquility enveloped Anna.  As she slid again into deep sleep,

the nurse heard her whimper,” Mama…Dada,” and then she was silent.

Greystone Park Psychiatric Hospital, formerly known as The New Jersey

 State Lunatic Asylum was overcrowded to double its capacity.  There

were patients in cots in the hallways, dayrooms and recreation rooms. 

The cots were often soiled by the patients.  They were folded up during

the daytime and handed out at night without being cleaned.  The facility

was severely understaffed, unable to handle the constant influx of new

admissions.  

Young Anna Voloshin was just another face in the crowd of the pathetic,

troubled, frightening women that resided all around her.  She learned

early on that her survival depended on complying with the routine that

was the same every day.  She stood in the medication line with the other

women and swallowed the pills on schedule.  She must not resist or she

would be held down and injected.  She became accustomed to taking the

medication that kept her from feeling frightened.  She walked the grounds

in warm weather.  It was so pretty there. 

Anna felt sad when she thought about her family.  The staff sometimes

overheard her speaking to people they assumed were her siblings.  They

saw her smile slightly when she said, “babies.”  Though Anna continued

to cringe and back away when anyone touched her, she would answer

when spoken to. 

One night, a nurse asked her, “Anna, wouldn’t you like to go home and

sleep in your own bed one day?”

“No!” Anna shouted, becoming so agitated she needed to be sedated.

Anna’s behavior, as noted by the staff, puzzled the psychiatrist who

spoke with her monthly.  It was apparent that she loved and missed

her family, but she couldn’t explain to the doctor why she didn’t want

to go home.  Anna didn’t know why.  She had repressed all memory of

the traumas she endured in her own bed at home.

***

Stephan was motivated to learn to read and write English.  He learned

quickly, studying and practicing with his children’s school books.  Soon,

he was able to read the progress reports and reply to the Greystone

Hospital.  The facility reported that Anna’s condition had improved

somewhat since her admission there two years before.  Though she was

not ready to return to her home, it was determined that Anna may

benefit from a visit by her parents.  

Stephan and Mary saved every cent possible in order to afford the

round-trip train fare to visit their beloved Anna at Greystone.  Finally,

they made the journey, both eager to reunite with their daughter, yet

pensive as they remembered Anna’s frightening condition when they last

saw her. 

The November day was cold, and the patients were all indoors.  The

Voloshins were appalled at the obnoxious odors, the slovenly appearance

of the women as they aimlessly ambled about, and the shouts and

screams of patients restrained in chairs.  Finally, they located Anna

in the dayroom.

She had become a beautiful young woman, even in the drab garb

provided by the Hospital, tall like Stephan and waif-like, with Mary’s

long, brown hair and wide, brown eyes that showed a spark of

recognition.

“Mama…Dada,” she murmured.