The Young Doc

The alarm goes off at 5:30 a.m.

No time to hit the snooze button....she gets out of bed, does the morning routine quickly;

brush teeth; quickly run a comb through beatuiful shoulder-length hair; grab an energy bar; make a quick lunch of a left-over boiled egg, strawberries, string cheese;

then out the door before six; get on the bike or the scooter, or if any extra time, walk to the hospital.

Today she may see: a young child whose stitches from previous operation have come out and his bowel protrudes through stomach; a 68 yr. old with parkinson's disease, so they operate giving her deep-brain stimulation while she is awake; a gall bladder operation on a 300 pound patient; a very young accident victim who later dies; she sees it all.

Her day ends at five, six, seven, eight, but rarely earlier.

She returns home - to study.

Always needing to stay in or ahead of the game. Ever present loom the national boards.

The kitchen table is literally covered with magazines and books from her craft; the anesthesiology journal, anesthesiology news, text books, etc. By the reading chair in her front room are similar materials.

She falls asleep with her books scattered round, so to bed, and then, all too quickly, the pattern is repeated; day in and day out.

Laundry, shopping, cleaning, hiking, exercising; they are all sandwiched in on a rare day off.

She is beautiful, talented, creative, funny, strong, generous, tender-hearted, thoughtful, good...

And every once in awhile, she sneaks in some time for fun - like the other night when we went to dinner with the doc and her friend. She wore these gorgeous red shoes - oh, I so wish I had a picture, and she looked so pretty/fantastic!!!!

She is our daughter...

and, oh, how we love this young doc.

It's Birthday Time!

That was indeed a happy day on February 9, 1970. Jeremy is one of those amazing kids that is always happy! And, he could entertain himself with his toys for a long time. What a fun child he was! When he was about two years old, our friend, Martha, who had studied some sort of facial blah, blah, told us one day, "He's got musical ears!" And, indeed he does...along with musical fingers, and voice, and entire body. At a band concert one summer when Mr. Beck had the concert outside, our neighbor, Mr. Maybee said, "I just watched Jeremy the entire night...he was so entertaining to watch as he played the drums!" I've always loved Jeremy's music from the drums to the guitar to the steel drum (which was just awesome!) to the piano...that kid is Mr. Music. Here's another story about the Birthday Boy....when he was about 5, I asked him one night what he was going to do with his children when he was a dad...his response, "I'm going to spank em, and slap em, and have home evening!" (This is NOT a reflection of our home evenings, I am quick to add!) When he was an early teen, our neighbor, Andrea, had a very bad crush on Jeremy. I confiscated a note from Andrea to Jeremy which read, "Which do you want, my body or a pizza?" Jeremy's answer, which is so typical of that kid, "How about both?"

When Jeremy was in 7th grade, he and his friend, Jim Taylor, leaned across the aisle and they said, "When we grow up, let's be doctors!" And, they both are docs! Allen and I are very proud of our 2nd son, third child. He has worked very, very hard in his career. He has a master's degree in chemistry, an MD in anesthesiology, and a Post-doc fellowship in Pain Management. He is also an officer in the United States Navy. (One of his only faults is that he doesn't call us enough or keep us posted about his life.) He is a wonderful father to three young sons.

So, on this day, we are enormously proud of our son, Doctor Hackworth! Love ya, Jeremy!