Last month I drove to a neighboring state to buy a widow's antique eyeglass collection. I heard about the widow from a customer of ours who had been a patient of the widow's husband, an optometrist.
The widow lived in a beautiful old victorian style house, that had a small room off to one side that had been his office. He stopped practicing in 1979, and had passed away in 1986. The widow said that at one time, he had over 9,000 patients that came from the small farming communities tht surrounded the village. (To this day there is still not an OD, MD, or optician w/in 80 miles.) She told me some interesting stories about his patients, and the items they would barter and what not. You know, the usual story telling stuff.
When I asked her where her husband had to travel from this village to attend college, the widow starting laughing. "Oh" she said, "I guess he's been gone long enough to let it out...You see, in 1914, my mother passed away, and my brother-in-law, an eye doctor, came from Michigan for the funeral. While he was here, he spent the weekend show my husband how to check the eyes, and kind of "what to look for in the way of diseases" Over the years, he picked up enough equipment to where he had himself a whole eye doctor's office." She went on to explain some of the rather funny, and not so funny mistakes he'd made while learning his trade. When I asked her how many people knew he'd never had a formal education, nor an optometry license, she said that probably most of the locals, but none of the farmers had known. Then she added, "Oh, but he was a fine doctor!"
Could you imagine someone trying to get away with that today ? This guy practiced for over 55 years, and from what our customer tells me, had a fine reputation.
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