Red Blanket Society

The 'Red Blanket' stems from a historical period of LAC-USC Medical Center. Patients for different services (e.g. Surgery or OB) were given priority when a red cloth was draped across their bed while they waited in the hallway now known as 1060. Oh, the days ... when patients were seen, diagnosed and sent ON THEIR WAY to the appropriate service. 1060 is still a hallway and still often strewn with patients but the days of the 'Red Blanket' are yore. We support the residency with the strength of this memory and the strength of our membership. Join the RBS today!

The Great Stone Mother

by Gerald Whelan

In the skyline of Los Angeles some sixty years ago
An edifice began to rise, the people watched it grow
It was not built for profit, and it was not built for fame
But soon throughout the whole wide land it built itself a name

It was made of steel and concrete, it was hard and it was strong
Yet from within each night was heard an oddly gentle song
Like the humming of a mother as she strokes a fevered brow
And soon the people came to know that here there was a vow

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And the Great Stone Mother she stands proud and she stands tall
She's touched our lives in, oh, so many ways
She's held the broken and the sick
She's taught the slow and taught the quick
And part of her is with us all our days
And no matter where we go, we will always know
That the Great Stone Mother will live on!

The people brought the old and weak, the dying and the lame
The ones with no where else to go, the ones in so much pain
But they also brought the children, and brought young lives anew
In the birthing and the dying she became a mother true

The doctors came to care for them but they came to learn as well
It wasn't always easy, some nights were close to hell
But they struggled through and did their best and when their leave they took
They found they'd gotten something that wasn't in the book

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Now they say that she is stumbling, they say her time is nigh
They say it's time to wind it down and let our Mother die
We'll build a brand new hospital, while we're at it we'll build two
'Cause anyone can tell you, it's better if it's new

But though they turn her lights out, and though they close her doors
When they finally close the D.E.M. and empty out her floors
There will still be heard the humming from the lady in the night
As she says a prayer and trusts us that her children are all right

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