On Friday, James wasn’t feeling well. Fever, sore throat, the whole thing. So Lauren took him to our peditrician. And we found out that he had strep throat. The doctor wrote us a prescription and said that she wanted to see James Sunday (today) for a follow up.
I thought to myself that Sunday was a bit unsual but we made the appointment.
Today I took James to see the doctor. He’s going to be fine but on the way out, something clicked. It was about my dad.
* * *
My dad is 70 years old. He’s been practicing medicine for longer than I’ve been alive. A few years ago he retired but after 6 months he went back to work. Yes, that’s right, after 6 months he went back to work.
He sees patients every day and also keeps office ours on Saturdays. Still. He gives out his mobile number to his patients and they call him all the time. 7 days a week. This has been going on as long as I can possibly remember. He carries his iPhone everywhere.
I thought I knew why my dad worked this hard his whole life. He enjoyed his work and was also providing for his family (along with my mom who works like crazy still to this day as well. She’s a doctor and at age 60-something, she works 5 days a week)
But my dad’s office hours on Saturday always felt odd to me. Especially at age 70. What’s he doing?
Today when I left the pediatrician’s office the obvious point hit me between the eyes. These folks love their work. They care about their patients. They will do whatever it takes to help.
As a little kid and now a big kid, I often wished my dad would work less and enjoy life more. But that’s just it. He is enjoying his life. And it’s inspiring.
* * *
side note: as we were leaving the office, there was another sick little boy about James’ age (4 or 5) in the lobby. He saw my boy’s Yankees shirt and said outloud, “Yankees? I don’t like the Yankees”. James looked at the kid and replied, “I don’t like the Red Sox”.
It was a proud moment for sure :)