Hospital regulations require a wheelchair for patients being
discharged.

However, while working as a student nurse, I found one
elderly gentleman -- already dressed and sitting on the bed with a
suitcase at his feet -- who insisted he didn't need my help to leave
the hospital.

After a chat about rules being rules, he reluctantly
let me wheel him to the elevator.

On the way down I asked him if
his wife was meeting him.

"I don't know," he said. "She's still
upstairs in the bathroom changing out of her hospital gown"