Laurie Schmidt

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Laurie is a political activist and Rowan's girlfriend.

Personality

She is a passionate advocate for elder rights and healthcare including palliative care and the right to euthanasia, incongruous in conservative Kennet.<ref>“What’s the paper?” Lucy asked.

Laurie perked up, peeled away a page from the stack, and handed it over.  “Elder care, and trying to have a forum to discuss alternative options.”

Verona snorted.  “I’ve been thinking that if I got old and helpless, I’d want to do the thing where I get put on an ice floe and pushed out to sea.”

“If you do half the stuff you’ve talked about doing, you’re going to lead a really weird life,” Lucy told her friend.

“Like I’m not going to already?  Look at the last week and a half.”

“Point.”

“The ice floe thing isn’t that far off,” Laurie chimed in.  “We’re so dangerously close to a point in time when the boomer population is going to be in senior care, and we don’t have the staff for it, we don’t have the capacity, we don’t have the other resources.  Rather than a cold and lonely death, wouldn’t it be better to give more options to someone who’s old and in pain?  Let them pass, surrounded by family?”

“You’re going to have a steep uphill battle bringing that up in Kennet,” Rowan said.

“You think I don’t know?” Laurie asked.  “I grew up here.”

“I know, but-”

“I would rather have a harder conversation somewhere like here, where I’m changing one mind, than go somewhere like, I don’t know, Toronto?  And have a hundred people who already agree with me nodding their heads and giving me a thumbs up.” - Excerpt from Out on a Limb 3.7</ref><ref>

up.” - Excerpt from Out on a Limb 3.8</ref>

Relationships

She is currently in a relationship with Rowan Kelly, despite being togeather they are described as being "snippy" whilst in each others company.<ref>- Excerpt from Cutting Class 6.2</ref>

Appearance

Laurie is described as slim and dark haired.<ref>The woman, twenty, slim and dark haired, was already standing in the front hall.  Laurie reached in to hold the screen door and let Avery squeeze through.  Avery ducked her head down, feeling heat at her face as she had to pass in such close proximity to the woman.  It wasn’t that her brother’s girlfriend was her type, but Avery’s height put her head at the same level as Laurie’s chest, which meant she had to work to not headbutt her, and she was very cognizant of the smell of her shampoo and the fact she was wearing a low-cut top. - Excerpt from Lost for Words 1.4</ref>

Abilities and Art

Still young she is passionate about her politics.

Chronology

Before the Story

Met up with Rowan in high school and got togather.

She likely wrote an anonymous article about elder care for the Kennet newsletter.<ref>Opinion Article: Difficult Care, Opinion, Name Withheld.

There is no secret that we face a significant brain drain in rural Canada. Every election cycle it comes up in the news and it is soon forgotten. I have worked in healthcare since I was twenty and I have watched budgets getting cut, Doctors & RNs leaving for greener pastures, and I see the people who stay getting stretched thinner and thinner. This entire time, I’ve wondered what the breaking point might look like.

I worry that as of this spring, we’re seeing that breaking point manifest. Rates of patient violence have skyrocketed, and it is hard to know why. When I talk with coworkers in the field, they agree that something is wrong, but the more anyone asserts that they have a firm answer, the less certain I am they’re right. I’ve heard explanations that range from the ongoing culture war to the change in social media or even, privately, the most kind-hearted nurses wondering aloud if their exhaustion with the current state of affairs is changing them for the worse, with vulnerable patients recognizing that change and pre-emptively reacting to it.

I don’t think that’s true, but I do think we need help. At Kennet General we’re seeing RNs and Doctors get sidelined by injuries, as if they were athletes in a contact sport. We reach out for more and too few of the bright and talented are willing to come out to a small town of five thousand people. I don’t have a single colleague who hasn’t voiced thoughts of quitting or changing to another position or city. Half of those who stay seem to do so because they care about their community and they know nobody is coming out to replace them

It was always my belief that the breaking point would be an event. Something tangible. Instead, it feels like a creeping sentiment. A mass hysteria creeping over a body of patients that pushes people to their edges, and a frustration in healthcare workers, that can manifest in ugly behavior I’ve privately reported, knowing that little will be done. We simply can’t afford to lose even the bad ones.

It is with a whimper, not a bang, that this collapses. In my department, there are five women of retirement age. When one quits or gets hurt, four more will leave, and the department will be empty. What then? The possibility scares me. - Kennet Newsletter</ref>

References

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