Mar 27, 2017 3 min read

Due to an unforeseen health scare for my husband, I have had occasion to spend a good deal of time at the hospital in the last week. I know my way to several different departments, and which elevators get you there the fastest. I have discovered which vending machines have the best snacks. I have figured out where you can push your luck with visiting hours and where they are very strict.

All of that seems easy in comparison with figuring out how to escape the parking garage. Here I have struggled somewhat. (You know me well enough to know that it couldn’t ALL be smooth sailing, right?)

The first night when it was time for me to head out, I walked to the nearest exit and pulled a five-dollar bill out of my purse near the token machine. After several attempts to insert it – even pausing to straighten it on the edge of the machine – I still couldn’t make the machine accept it.

This is when I noticed that the particular machine I was standing before accepted only one-dollar bills and quarters. I put the five away and started digging for quarters. I found four in my wallet and decided to walk out to the car for the rest.

I found five more in the console of the car, another one in the cup holder, and one more under the edge of the floor mat.

Continued digging, flashlight in hand, revealed no more quarters. I needed 12 and had 11.

Discouraged, I attempted to go back in the door I had exited, only to discover that it didn’t permit re-entry. Instead, I walked outside and around the hospital to the main entrance, knowing that there was a bill-changing machine in the foyer. When I arrived, I was further discouraged to discover that the main doors are locked at 9 in the evening, and I was encouraged to enter at the emergency department. Knowing that those doors were several blocks away, and would also require a several-block walk back to my car, I pressed the call button to request assistance at the front door.

The kind voice that answered told me someone would come to assist me – as soon as shift change was complete.

I stood, shivering, for several minutes before a kind security guard came to my rescue. Not only did he give me a token, but he followed me back to my vehicle to ensure I arrived there safely. Then, he raised the bar to allow me to exit without using my token, suggesting I could keep my token for the next day.

Well, I lost the token in the car that night. So the next day, I took my five-dollar bill to a vending machine that accepted them and changed it into quarters so I would be prepared to leave at the end of the evening.

It was late when I walked to the token dispenser with my more-than-adequate supply of quarters jingling in my pocket. Because we were in a different department that day, I approached a different token machine … which I promptly noticed had no quarter slot, and requested – you guessed it – one- or five-dollar bills only.

I’ve been parking on the street ever since.

Laura Zoeller can be reached at zoeller5@verizon.net.