February 6, 2009. SanAntonio, Tx. Alice Anne.

I met her the first week we moved to Texas in 1964. She was an Intern, and Ken was a Resident at the University of Texas Medical Center in Galveston, Texas. She had moved there from Arkansas and Ken and I from Toronto, Ontario so we came from very different worlds. We both took apartments in the same new complex just one block from the beach so as we were right across the court yard from each other, we saw each other every day. Ken and I lived in Galveston for six years, while Alice Anne has never left. She followed up her Pediatric Residency by joining the Department of Family Medicine in Galveston. For three years in Galveston, I worked as a Recreation Therapist in the Division of Adolescent and Children Psychiatry. As part of my job I organized teen activities twice a week. Alice Anne played a guitar and sang. With her long hair and her southern accent she sounded just like Joan Bias. She was very friendly and fun and was willing to come to our teen group several times a year to sing with us. The kids loved it. Her opening song was always the same. She sang a song about her own name, then she went around the group and asked each kid their name, in the proper part of the song. The rest of the evening she would sing by herself or get the kids to sing along together. At the end of the evening, she returned to the opening song, but now she called each kid's name aloud to say goodbye. They were stunned by this, as often we had fifty or more in the group. She was a special person indeed.

She is my age, but she still works three days a week at the Medical Center. I know a lot of stories about Alice Anne, but the one I think most interesting has to do with Spelling. She is not a good speller. This caused her great trouble at school. Now she was brought up in the country in Arkansas, and attended a two room school house. She must have been smart and did well, but she just could not spell well. The teacher thought that she was not trying hard enough and was not pleased with Alice Anne's efforts. Now she was in the fourth grade. Alice Anne told the teacher that indeed she was trying hard, but it would not seem to come to her. She consoled the teacher by telling her that it would be OK because Alice Anne would always have a Secretary, after she finished school!! This caused a lot of trouble. Alice Anne was sent out of the classroom and her parents were called. The teacher thought Alice Anne was being a smart ass, when really she was only making the teacher feel better. The truth is, that Alice Anne has always had an administrative person to help. The really interesting question is how a child in rural Arkansas, living with loving but simple parents with no education can figure out from an early age that she will achieve and that she will always have a Secretary? Her spelling is still awful but now she uses spell check. She is still a good friend too.