For Laurinburg native David Biddell, a mural hung last month in the intensive care unit waiting room at Scotland Memorial Hospital was a kind deed come full circle.
“I grew up there and I thought it would be neat to help out my hometown, a place where my parents still lived at the time, and I knew I would be able to come back and actually see it,” Biddell said.
Biddell, now a Raleigh resident, is an ocular specialty manager for Bausch and Lomb and oversees a team of salespeople for the company. The team painted a mural earlier this year during a team-building experience with the Foundation for Hospital Art, a Marietta, Ga. nonprofit whose mission is to place a piece of art in every hospital worldwide.
The suggestion of team member Christina Taylor prompted Biddell to think of his hometown hospital when selecting a final destination for the work, a brightly-colored rendering of three flamingos.
“Huge hospitals get a lot of money and a lot of things sent to them, and Laurinburg might be missed sometimes,” Taylor said.
Initially the staff of Scotland Memorial Foundation were unsure what to make of the donation, but through Bowling Eye Clinic in Laurinburg were able to determine that the offer was legitimate. Before hanging the mural, hospital staff painted an accent wall in the ICU waiting room to match it.
“We are thrilled with this painting,” said Scotland Memorial Foundation executive director Kirsten Dean. “You don’t very often get stuff that just lands in your lap like this.”
Soon after the donation, Biddell’s mother passed away at Scotland Memorial Hospital, with his father also spending time in the ICU following a stroke.
“We were actually in the ICU quite a bit and the day my dad checked out of the hospital I happened to catch the colorful painting out of the corner of my eye,” he said. “It was just so nice to see that room transformed, because it had been a very dreary room and people are in a very dreary place in their lives when they’re in that room.”
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