Cariad Bach

The nurse in charge of intensive care told me that we had had  a lady from the village admitted.
It was a villager I know fairly well.
Before we were allocated to our respective patients, I popped over to her bed space to check on how she was doing.
Intensive care disguises patients well.
It covers patients with tubes and lines and drains and cables.
It masks faces with endotracheal tubes and oxygen masks and through necessity removes personalised clothing for gowns and clean sheets.
From the centre of such a collection came a weak sing song voice
" Hello Cariad Bach " it trilled
" Cariad Bach " is a rather old fashioned term in Welsh.
It literally means " little sweetheart" or " little loved one" 

The nurse in charge, reads Going Gently , I think, for when I got back in line for the allocation , she asked me, in a somewhat theatrical stage whisper " is she one of your old ladies? "