I remembered the "hospital window" story and got grossed out.

[snarp]

The one about the two old guys in a hospital room together, that they tell to little kids for some reason?

My skin always crawled whenever they busted that story out, because it's not "inspirational," it's psychological horror. You introduce kids to this character, ask them to empathize with him - and then reveal that he's a psychopath willing to watch a friend die to get his hospital bed.

While usually the surviving guy is just passively complicit in his friend's death - he lies there quietly and listens to his friend die with the call button within reach - I also heard a variant where it was straight-up premeditated murder, via crushed meds placed in the other guy's food.

This story is why I was terrified of nursing homes when I was little. I'd heard it so many times I was convinced they were full of 1) people bravely lying about how miserable and tedious their lives were, and 2) murderers.

Just. Why did they even tell us this? What the fuck is wrong with the people who like it? What are we supposed to be getting out of it? "Don't casually murder people for personal gain, because you might not get what you want." "Don't be kind; you'll be despised and betrayed for it by those you trusted." "Hospitals are monstrous hellholes of apathy, neglect, and rage." "Old age will render you either a helpless victim of an uncaring system, or an equally-pathetic and trapped creature composed of pure hatred and envy."

Comments

[law_nerd]

Wow... I've heard/read that story before... but never in a version where the surviving guy is complicit (or involved at all) in the other guys' death. More of a "he wakes up one morning and friend's bed is empty" kinda thing.

It always seemed a bit too O. Henry-ish for my tastes... yet... now... I guess I'm glad that as a kid I only got the kinder gentler version rather than the macabre one.

[snarp]

Someone on Tumblr also responded saying they'd never heard the murderous version. Whereas I had never heard heard the non-murderous version!

I'm wondering now if this is a Kentucky Thing.

[law_nerd]

Could be a Canadian thing to make a kinder, gentler, version... Though if it is a Kentucky thing, I'd tend to suggest planning on moving somewhere a bit less murderous before you get old enough to need a nursing home.

[petronia]

I have never heard this story and am baffled that any version of it is told to children anywhere. XD;; (Surely, at very best, it would make you upset about your grandparents who might be in a nursing home?)

[torachan]

I've never heard it, either...

[vass]

What are we supposed to be getting out of it?

I'm guessing, "Imagination is better than real life." Plus a large helping of the same sort of dramatic irony/glurge combo you also get in One Tin Soldier.

What I'm getting out of it is that technology is a good thing: Lung Guy needed a baby monitor so the nurse on duty could hear if he started choking, and Murderer Guy needed a TV where he could see it.