My Lifelong Childhood

"Do you hear the children weeping, O my brothers,       Ere the sorrow comes with years?"                               The Cry of the Children   Elizabeth Barrett Browning (1806-1861) Arriving to work at a large children's hospital was a totally different experience, everything being child-sized and child-centered.  Everything was about children and adolescents!  The patients ranged from premature newborns to adolescents, presenting the whole range of ailments and disabilities.  The first thing you learn is that a child is not a small adult but a developing and growing human being, hopefully cherished by loving parents, and testing the waters of life and growing into a competent and independent individual.  Were that always true.  This was to be my "work" for the remainder of my life, whether it was in healing them, listening to them, and, to this day, advocating for them as a trustful partner with parents and families. I ask you to forgive the se

A MEMORABLE YEAR Among new men, strange faces, other minds.                                 Alfred, Lord Tennyson (1809-1892) 1974-75 This year was marked by change and, without change, there is little progress.  The experience of living in a foreign country and then returning to one's home is like putting on an old sweater or pair of worn out shoes.  There was no need to try to think in French, or use currency with a King's image, or beware of driver's entering the road from your right.  The formality of avoiding calling acquaintances by their first name, or foregoing the customary handshake, or feeling like an outsider was no longer there.  it was a comfortable feeling albeit a completely different set of rules.  Schlitz, Budweiser, and Rheingold did not cut it against the Belgian beers...and we certainly missed those moules with frites. As an Intern, I felt like part of a team that worked, socialized and ate together.  We were all in the same boat.  The caf