Differences (Prompt #1)

By Kathleen Benzaquin

I remember coming to North Carolina in 1977 after a terrible blizzard in New York State where I was working. I was struck by the vestiges of segregation that I faced so different from what I knew from a pretty integrated society up north.  My husband held a door open for a Black woman who appeared shocked by this act of kindness, what we took for granted was not so easily seen in my new state.  This was brought home on my interview with NCSSM's Mike Collins before the school opened.  During my tour of the facilities we met up with the security guard who worked for the hospital for many years. He spoke of a ghost that haunted the place who he swore he had seen and heard. It was a white male searching for his wife who had fallen ill. However, as she was Black and the hospitals were segregated, she was taken to the Black one where she died.  He roamed the halls looking for her.  A far fetched story? Perhaps but one rooted in the history of the times.