Adventures of the Pineapple Room

For a few years, my surgeon, Dr. Paley, lived in Baltimore and that is where we would go for my surgeries. Depending on the procedure, I would stay for somewhere between a week to several months at the Ronald Mc. Donald House. Just the other day my dad showed me a video of Eliza and I as four year olds getting all excited about how we were gonna be living at Mc. Donalds! Sometimes it would be me and one parent, and Eliza and I would be seperated. That was always difficult, especially since we are twins and weren’t used to being apart. Then we’d go back to our house in California. I’m not entirely sure when, but at some point Dr. Paley moved his practice to West Palm Beach, Florida. (near Miami) Deprived of our “Mc Donalds” we would now be staying at a place called “Quantum House”. And so began the adventures of the Pineapple room. Quantum House is a large building where kids and their families could stay while they were undergoing treatment at St. Marys; the hospital nearby. (where Paley now worked) It’s difficult to describe but i’ll go ahead and attempt it. There’s a community lobby and living room that the families share. Down the hall there is a large kitchen/table area where everybody eats. Everybody gets a certain amount of shelf space in the refrigerator and cupboards and… I’m going into too much detail… Anyways, every day a different organization or restaurant volunteers to come in and cook a huge meal for all the families for dinner. Every family gets a room, much like a hotel, with a bathroom, queen bed, and small twin in the corner. They would have fold-up cots available if we needed more beds. It was our home away from home. The dinner system was so great. I loved it because every day would be something different. Mediterranean, american, italian, seafood, etc. Sometimes it would be just pizza or a bowl of chilli, sometimes it would be a big fancy meal made by volunteers. It was one of the best things about Quantum House, especially for Mom. It was oftentimes just us two there and we would be dealing with a lot; physical therapy, surgeries, lengthening, pincare, homeschooling, etc. and it was such a blessing to know that however the day went, we’d always have a hot meal ready for us. Okay… It’s probably time I tell you what the Pineapple room is. At Quantum house, the rooms were labeled with with plants as well as numbers. Our room was the pineapple room. So our walls were yellow, the bed was shaped like a big pineapple, and furniture was tropical themed. Okay relax. I’m joking. A pineapple shaped bed? Really Lydia? The rooms are all the same inside. I guess it made it easier to remember where everybody was as a kid. Avery and her mom were in Mango, Paige and her dad were in Starfruit, and Alex and Luke were in Kiwi. (full disclosure I just made those up… I don’t have that good a memory) Anyways, I remember when I was younger, wheeling myself down the long hall. I would go past each door and imagine that it was like the inside of its’ fruit. I’d wheel past the strawberry room, close my eyes, and imagine the pink walls, fluffy strawberry patterned quilts with beautiful green bed cushions shaped like leaves. I’d imagine that everything smelled like strawberry, and that there’d be a little bowl of them on the desk. I could almost smell the sweet and ever-so-slightly tart scent that would waft by every time the door opened. Of course, it was all in my head. It was always so fun to imagine. Last time we stayed at Quantum house, Eliza and I were twelve. It was just Mom and I for most of it but Eliza, Dad, and even Grandma Phyllis spent some time with us in the Pineapple room. Our days consisted of homeschooling, PT, and goofing off with my new friends. I got my laptop (the same one I’m typing on now) when I was 12 just before we left for Florida. I needed it to continue online school and for something to do in the hospital. It’s a Macbook Air and I remember we had this app called photo booth. It was a camera – video that had all sorts of silly filters and effects. Eliza and I would goof off all the time, making silly videos with weird filters that made us look like aliens. -Lydia