During a recent stay at St. Mary’s Hospital, patient and local grandfather Robert Peckham was caught by family and hospital staff trying to use the same jokes on every new rotation of nurses assigned to him since his arrival.
Peckham’s wife, Diane, who brought her husband to the hospital Tuesday night after Peckham woke up with chest pain, was reportedly “shocked” by her husband’s actions and exceedingly apologetic to the hospital staff.
“We were all really worried about Grandpa when we brought him in on Tuesday,” said Diane Peckham. “He slept most of the day, but when he woke up in the evening, he immediately whispered to the nurse who was administering more aspirin, ‘Tell my wife I died and run away with me,’ and it was obvious that he was doing much better.”
“But then around midnight, during a shift change, a different nurse came in to help him use the bathroom and he told her the same damn joke,” continued Peckham. “I couldn’t believe he did that.”
Peckham’s children and grandchildren were reportedly just as horrified that their grandfather was recycling the same material on nurse after nurse during their visit to see him.
Peckham’s eldest granddaughter Elizabeth Schwartz, who reportedly heard Peckham tell three different nurses, “If I take a bad turn, don’t let my wife invite her sister Carol to my funeral,” was particularly disturbed by her grandfather’s unoriginal bits.
“It was so uncomfortable for us to sit there knowing that the nurses probably thought we were all a bunch of humorless hacks,” said Schwartz. “I love Grandpa and I’ll always support him, but I mean, all he’s doing is laying in a hospital bed all day. You’d think he could come up with at least one joke per nurse.”
When reached for comment, nurse practitioner Katie Cortez reported that she was, “just thankful [Peckham] wasn’t trying to graze her breasts when she changed his IV, or something.”
