Saturday, June 16, 2018 5:48 AM

When I enter the hospital room, I immediately recognize the first voice that I hear. That person, though, is an ocean away. Instead, it's a nurse I've never met, with the same southern New Jersey accent, as thick as canned soup. "Hey, Toms River!" She'd been told I'd be visiting. "I'm Englishtown. You know, the flea market?" I know. Listening to her speak, I guess that she's been here for a long time. She may have learned nursing here. The patient I'm visiting and the other's caregiver both speak English, so that's what she speaks to them. But the medical terms, drug names, and the like are all in perfect Hebrew. She seems to have only used the words here. She pronounces even the shared words with Hebrew's guttural consonants and static vowels. She waves as she rolls her cart out the door. "See you again!" Perhaps. But as pleasant as she and the hospital are, I hope I won't have to come here often.