SANDY J. KLARMACH OESTREICH, RN.C., M.S., is a certified nurse practitioner and an assistant professor of nursing at Adelphi University, Garden City, New York, and a doctoral student at Hofstra University, N.Y. this new experience. We climbed at least one flight of stairs, and I was told to wait on a long wooden bench at the side of a dark paneled hall. After the door closed behind mother, I didn't move from that spot on the bench. I didn't even swing my legs. Why did she want to come to such a gloomy place where everything was so dark? No one came or went while I waited.