The other day I was looking for baby stuff on Craig’s List. I found a high chair and an activity center for $10 each. Too good to be true, I thought, but I had to check it out. I called the seller and asked for directions to her house, and headed out to see her stuff.

The seller greeted me at her door and she had a big black eye. It looked like the kind of bruising you would get if someone decked you. She showed me her stuff and it was evident she had once had a daycare center at the location. She explained to me that she had to close it because of “family problems,” and gave me this look that said, “Family problems equaling a black eye.”

At this point I felt so sorry for her but also extremely awkward. The stuff she was trying to sell was broken and filthy. I politely thanked her and left without buying anything. As I pulled away a friend of hers had driven up to the house, got out of the car and gave her a hug, so at least I didn’t feel like I was leaving her completely alone.

I questioned myself on the way home: Should I have tried to get help for her? Do I have any compassion at all? Am I really cut out to be a nurse? I’m not really sure what I could have done, anyway. I was carrying Baby Ben the whole time and my strongest instinct was to get him the hell away from this place cause it definitely had some bad joo joo.

I’ll be some of you ER nurses would have known what to do…