![]() ![]() ![]() I was sitting in front of a steaming cup of black coffee in a bar overlooking the market place. The sky was clear after three days and three nights of drizzle. Should it have been forgotten? It was a Sunday in autumn, a day of respite, a blank in my diary, no goal, no dream, nearly extinct. Aren’t we all? I had pondered this story for a long time, perhaps too long. I was born a coward and a warrior, inoffensive and venomous. I would have preferred to avoid all that, the scandal, the hatred, the stigma, but it was stronger than me. People of the profession who might recognise themselves in this account, rest assured that you are beyond words. What follows is a debt of trust, a blend of friendship, compassion and-an endangered feeling-pity. Amiens Hospital informed me of his passing and sent his exercise books and a green notebook to my address in N, the city where he practised. Was it proper and useful to pay attention to this rambling chronicle and, according to his wish, to translate it (my mother was French)? As a construction engineer by trade, I could not add any literary dimension, which he would probably have appreciated. ![]() He led the life of an ordinary physician who dreamt of being better than he was. I am not sure he ever played on the piano any of the pieces he sprinkled over his memories. He coated it a little, out of self-consciousness and out of shame. ![]() He liked to make up a story, to blow it up, to embellish that was his childish side. He repeated that as well, but he was certainly exaggerating. Nobody else seemed to be deeply interested in him. Our meetings quickly drifted away from my respiratory condition. All personal names and surnames have been changed.Ī CIP catalogue record for this title is available from the British Library. The views expressed in this memoir are solely those of the author. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior permission of the publishers.Īny person who commits any unauthorised act in relation to this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages.Īll of the events in this memoir are true to the best of author’s memory. The right of Zann Karlé-Schmitt to be identified as author of this work has been asserted by the author in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.Īll rights reserved. We had all been waiting for him to return. Worm-eaten apples from his orchard and his mouldering home-made rye bread gave off a chaos of smells that floated over a clutter of books, magazines and medical articles read, re-read and annotated, dossiers under study and boxes of hibernating folders, photos of snow-covered trees and one empty bench in the sun at Kew Gardens…the life of an artist flavoured the place. His office looked like an explorer’s cabin on board a dubious cargo ship. And what to say about his sense of humour, his culture and his infectious enthusiasm? He was at one and the same time the lighthouse of our department and its tireless adventurer. His medical and scientific talents were way above ours. I was paralysed by the fear of confronting his decline. My colleagues told me that he had lost a lot of weight he walked with a stick, he was very depressed and very lonely back in his big house. When I returned, I did not go to visit him. The day after his first operation, I left for a holiday in the Tyrol. We worked together in the same respiratory department for eight years at the hospital in N. Difficult to be certain that he would have appreciated it for two reasons: he did not speak French and he was living under the threat of two cancers, removed indeed, yet with a poor prognosis. This biography is dedicated to Doctor William R (PhD). Translated from French by Brigid Purcell, PhD inĮuropean Literature, assisted by Philippe Grünstein, Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians, Associate Professor Born in Mazuria (Poland), a region of lakes and wolves. ![]()
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