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Show 7H Ad nly seemed n o t s o d i f f i c u l t • When i1; w a s t i m e t 0 maJie pointments for my c h i l d r e n ' s physical check-ups, without?thinking about i t , I phoned my f a t h e r ' s a office for an appointment. Unlike other doctors, my f a t h e r d i d n ' t force his patients to schedule two months in advance. If he had to stay late or arrive earlier than his usual eight o'clock beginning time, he did so to f i t everyone in as soon as possible. His motive must have been concern, r a t h e r than money, for many of his patients were unable to pay. We were to go the next morning. I agonized over my daughters' hair and clothing and changed my own clothes half-a-dozen times before I s e t t l e d on a light flower-printed p a n t s u i t that someone had called sweet and old-fashioned - anithis only because I was ten minutes late. A breeze of poignant memories stung my senses as I entered the office with i t s familiar clean, sharp odors of disinfectant and a n t i s e p t i c and the subtler musky scents of herbs and vitamin p r e p a r a t i o n s . Aunt Helga was at the desk, her long hair neatly bobbed and waved softly around her face as always, her white uniform as crisp-looking although she had switched from starched cotton ^ ^ ^ . 7 * childhood. She smiled sweetly,a? we came in but greet hot- office personality, us in a b u s i n e s s - l i k e manner - her o i i i^ A +o iptAthe frustration I remembered, where she refused to l e t ' t ne , o t v o r hvpochondriacal people. •-Z5IZZZ of t r e a t i n g crochety or nypu - patients . r e c e n t l y asKed i o r her to t r e a t J ^ ^ the best-hidden tension, as thougn +a from t h e i r darK closets or cleaning spider-webbed secrets from *,+ * T sat down beside other p a t i e n t s, corners. Perhaps, I thought as I sat down |
