I had a really strange request when I worked at the Great Smokeys. A woman came into the Sugarlands Visitor Center lugging a heavy hospital-variety nursing machine and requested a private space in which to use it. I found a back room where she plugged in and expressed. She came back with a cup or so of milk in the container and asked "where can I dump this stuff?"

"Down your baby" was the answer that occurred to me, but I simply pointed her at a sink. Having since had two children of my own, and having had to use one of those machines myself when my son was in the NICU, I'm still rather puzzled at her attitude toward the milk as something more than mildly distasteful. I guess she was just naive about nursing and over-prepared for travelling sans the baby. I always expressed by hand to save it for later. There's a lot of room for conjecture--where was the baby, would she be doing this if the baby had died? I don't think so. Her behavior didn't indicate any bereavement, just distaste. Odd. A little mystery to puzzle over.

SRS