What could be more appropriate during these trying times than a few words about hospital postcards.  The category is so important, we actually have two:  Hospitals, and Asylum/Sanitarium.  Don’t get bored yet!

No, a hospital isn’t just a hospital.  Browse through the cards and you’ll see several different types:  private, university, state, military, specialised … and even then, they subdivide.  Take “military” for example.  Facilities on base, or veterans’ hospitals somewhere else.  Specialties?  Tuberculosis, Women, Children, Eyes (including a terrific one here in Hong Kong that keeps us seeing well enough to type these entries), Cancer…

And all asylums are not the same, though they’re rarely called that any more.  As far as we can tell, most commonly the earlier ones focused on TB or mental issues.  Wikipedia entries can be so politically correct these days, it’s hard to tell who the original patients were.  “Sanitarium” is a convenient synonym though we’ve seen different spellings and references, so we just follow what the cards say.

Our site doesn’t, however, show hospital cards’ messages.  They tend to be in one of two categories, either from the patient or from the visitor reporting back to relatives:  “I just went to see dad/mom/Uncle Louie and he’s getting better/worse/dead”.  Uncle Louie tends to write “I’ve been here for days/weeks/months and can’t wait to get out.”   The good news for him, if you can call it that, is that by now he’s definitely out — one way or another.

Do us a favour, OK?  Stay well and safe and do your best not to need to be in a hospital yourself.  Let postcards do that work for you.

Until next time …