Here is a ten minute pose from yesterday's life drawing studio. We never did get to the longer poses. Here is why:
We had just started back after the first break, when one of our older members collapsed and fell on the concrete floor. He was unconscious for only a moment. I believe he fainted first, then fell. I told one of the others to call 911, and I kept him from getting up until EMS could come assess him. He had a bump on his head, but was alert, coherent, knew the date, knew where he was. I called his wife. I asked him what meds he was on. He said none. He's about to be 78 years old! An American man that age, not on medication? Amazing. His mother recently died at the age of 104, so he must have good genes. He told me he had fainted the day before as well. The EMT's came, assessed. Took him to the hospital. His wife met him there. As you would expect, no one wanted to draw after that, and the model was certainly too upset to pose. I paid her the full amount anyway. After getting the studio squared away, I took the rain jacket, umbrella and cap he had left behind to the hospital. He had told me not to bother coming, so I was happy to have the excuse. Again, he was alert, looked fine. His wife was by his side. They still didn't know what was up. I had thought perhaps dehydration. The elderly don't hydrate enough, and, altho we had rain that morning, we had triple digit temps in the days before. I called his wife that evening to check in. The episodes had been caused by an irregular heartbeat. He was scheduled to get a pacemaker today. I'll call tonite to be sure it all went well. It's a pretty routine procedure these days. Bless his heart. He was so embarrassed that he fell. I'm just relieved that it appears everything will be fine. Whew!
I love happy endings!
