Hello, my name is Gerald Bokor and I was at one time a patient at Maybury.
I was one of the “Garden City Children” my time there was 1/4/1966 and released around 9/66 it was a long short stay. I was one of the first children who attended the Hansel & Gretel Nursery School in GC, when it was discovered that one of the teachers had passed TB to a large number of us kids. I celebrated my 5th birthday within the gates of Maybury and can recall that day well, my parents came bearing Batman capes for all the kids and a large Batman sheet cake, we carried on for some time and the parents left and the capes we taken and it was business as usual.
I don’t recall any harsh times but I do remember being tied to my bed with what I remember being some type of harness, which I wore often, after my secret solo field trip on the elevator to visit the girls on the adjacent floor. I do remember stainless steel bed pans and urinals that we were to use for I’m sure documentation reasons. I recall big large pills that needed to be crushed and mixed with water or milk, I remember well the day my parents dropped me off and the world as I knew it seemed to end. I can still remember certain days there and laugh, I often think of the day mom and dad came to visit and I hid under a table as they walked in and the saw a made bed with no me in it, the look of terror on my mothers face I knew what I had planned to be a trick was not playing out.
It was a strange time in my life and would be expected to be in any child’s life to be removed from home and placed in this type of environment, I often wonder if it has affected me in some deep way but I don’t know. However I do realize at this stage in my life that if it wasn’t for my doctor and the staff at Maybury that the out come may have been very different even yet. I have learned that after leaving Michigan that the hospital no longer stands and that the only thing that remains is a large barn. It’s sad to think of all the sickness suffered there at the same time the healing and care that took place as well and it’s great that there are memories on the web pertaining to the Sanatorium. Oh the other thing I recall very well is a lot of cream corn, and hot dogs.
Gerald Bokor
Click on photos to enlarge
Hello,
My name is Luis Resto.
I'm flipped out that I found Gerald's story.
I've been sorting through issues that seem to lead me back to my time at the sanatorium as well.
I remember most things pretty vividly.
Biggest memory is that of the sign they would hang at on your bed letting you know you were to get a gastric that day.
It immediately made you shudder because they'd wrap you in a sheet to keep you still as they put a tube down your throat to gather stomach fluid.
Mind you, this was the procedure of the time and I'm not sure how else one would go about doing it without restraining the kids. They (being the nurses and doctors) were always trying to be comforting but at that age we really didn't have a clue what was going on. From the first day of being left there I'm guessing in better and worse ways from our parents it really did change us forever. My mother had told me she would be back the following day to take me home and I was ready for that to happen. When it didn't I pretty much freaked. After that, I don't think I've ever reacted that way since.
Like Gerald said, there was nothing horrible about the place, it just wasn't at all a normal way of passing time at that age.
In fact, I remember well how we (the kids) sort of had our own version of The Little Rascals hang happening.
Lights out and we'd often play until we heard nurses coming and all would scamper back to the beds.
I also remember being taken out once, I'd imagine somewhere in the middle of the stay, and allowed to run in this field.
It was magical.
Having not been out for probably 3 months it was like a door to the Land of Oz was opened for a brief moment.
Wild.
I also recall the medicine carts that we'd gather around to take cupfills of pills.
As well, my introduction to Maybury, the urinal/fecal shelving carts that we'd use and it happened to be parked just outside my crib.
Never forget the odor.
I believe I read an earlier post of someone asking about a 'Ricky' and he was in the bed next to me.
He seemed younger as I recall then the rest of us.
This would be in the second unit I was moved to where I moved up to a bed out of my beginning crib area where I was with Bobby, Eric Wagner, I believe Gerald as well.
I'd see Gerald at Wayne County general occasionally after we were out and would get checkups.
One last thing.
I'm not positive if thats me in the pic.
Isn't that Kenny Marvaso?
Take care, maybe we can contact each other Gerald?
Do you ever cross with Dave Matliss?