Final Thoughts — Post #5

September 16, 2005  

Here’s another final reflection heard by Professor Tony Komaroff (M.D.), Professor at Harvard Medical School.

She was born and raised in Jamaica, had a 5th grade education, and earned a living as a seamstress. When her daughter first brought her to my office in 1972, she was 52, and I was the first doctor she had ever seen. Eventually, she lost her terror of me, began to ask about my family, and she became quite free with advice. For example, early in our relationship, her daughter took her on Boston’s Duck Tour. When she learned I’d never been on it, she instructed: “Take your wife.”

In December 2000, nearly 30 years after she first came to my office, she had a heart attack. I returned to town from a trip, and learned she was in the Intensive Care Unit. I went to her bedside and called her name. No response. Then I put my hand on her shoulder. She opened her eyes, smiled and whispered: “Don’t forget the Duck Tour.” Those were her last words.

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One Response to “Final Thoughts — Post #5”

  1. Rosario on February 11th, 2006 6:11 pm

    I would love to be able to embody such fine humor, sweet detachement, selflessness, grounded authenticity, grace, generosity of spirit, and calm abandonment in my dying bed -and to leave a smile behind. Those and some more feelings this paragraph inspired me.

    Thank you Steve for choosing and sharing this subtle picture of our beautiful human spirit.

    I am not from Jamaica, but can imagine myself growing such qualities in my heart…hopefully, to live by them before last expiration.