Reunion brings back flood of memories
by Dr. Peg Cox
"Grandma, why are your eyes red?"
My eight-year-old grandson stood on his roller blades
and looked up at me. We were on the lawn at Bowring Park, watching a regimental band in
brown kilts performing at a Memorial Day tribute for the Royal Newfoundland Regiment,
which lost a large number of soldiers in the battle of Beaumont Hamel during the First
World War.
With my husband, I had been attending a reunion of the first medical graduating class (1973) at Memorial University, where we had both been faculty members for many years before retiring to our former home in B.C. in 1991. We had also been visiting our son, who married and settled permanently in St. John's and now has two children.
When we first arrived in Newfoundland in 1969 as CFAs (Come From Aways) from the other end of Canada, it was to work in a new medical school, part of a university dedicated as a memorial to service-people who lost their lives in the two World Wars. "Launch forth into the deep" is the motto of that institution, and appropriately the Faculty of Medicine chose for the slogan of the 25th anniversary of the first MD graduates: "Anchored to our past... navigating our future."
The program of events includes "a rant at a time," a talk by Dr. Ken Roberts formally titled We Must Know Everything... What Then Shall We Do? Utilizing Medical Information. Dr. Roberts, professor emeritus, emphasized the need to understand evidence-based medical information and knowledge, and to integrate this with practice skills and humanity.
We also heard viewpoints on changes in the undergraduate medical curriculum, an overview of the medical school's contribution to improvements in health services in Newfoundland, and a discussion of physician health and well-being. The first dean of medicine and his three successors outlined highlights of their experiences, and four graduates presented innovative health care programs.
Mixed with these proceedings were affectionate meetings with friends and former students, tasting again the warm welcome of home invitations for chowder, lobster, crisp cod tongues, bakeapples and blueberries. Our grandchildren kept us active watching soccer and swimming, riding bikes around the block and reading stories aloud. We drove to see our favorite coastal places of Middle Cove and Outer Cove, Quidi Vidi and Signal Hill. On the final Sunday afternoon we walked with our son and his family in Bowring Park, where we used to go so often when we lived in St. John's.
Attracted by the drumbeats and brass of the band, we found ourselves on the grass watching them march in formation and then begin to play a series of Newfoundland songs. My favorite of these has always been Let Me Fish Off Cape St. Mary's; as the familiar haunting melody floated over the gardens it recalled the words: "Take me back to that snug green cove where the seas roll up their thunder," and my eyes filled at the recollections of times past on this Atlantic island that we have left, though part of our hearts will always remain these.
So, Jesse, that's why Grandma's eyes were red.
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