A Love Story on many levels...

The Good News:
 My wonderful friends Bill and Orienne are moving soon to Portland, OR.

The Bad News: 
My wonderful friends Bill and Orienne are moving soon to Portland, OR.

I've spent the last 10 months getting to know - and love - Bill and Orienne.  They are the dad and stepmom of a friend of mine in Minnesota.  I've had the pleasure of providing Companion Care.  They have often returned the favor.  

Bill is 91.  He is a doctor - who due to the misfortune of contracting tuberculosis as a young man - was required to channel his doctoring energy to teaching and administrative expertise.  One position he held was the Dean of the Tufts University medical school in Boston.

He is a sensitive, caring, and loving person.  In a way - it's a bit of a shame he wasn't able to share those bedside manner gifts with patients.  But in thinking it through - that same demeanor was probably a great asset to the "business" side of the medical field - as is evidenced by Orienne's mission...  

Orienne is 92 - or 87.  I love her admission that starting in her late 40's she began fudging her age.  She deducted 5 years to avoid what she felt was a social stigma and prejudice associated with "matronly" women and careers.
After losing her second husband - also a doctor - to suicide - Orienne started a foundation called Human Dimensions in Medical Education (HDME).  It was born to help medical students and doctors cope with the the immense pressures of college, interning, residency, and practice.

By losing her husband, she had witnessed first hand what the pressures of years of medical school - and practicing medicine - can do to break a person down.  Her goal was to 'humanize' it for the benefit of them all - with a trickle-down benefit to the patients.  She partnered with psychologist Carl Rogers - who had a strong belief in her mission - and the seminars put on by HDME were widely attended and extremely successful.

Orienne has a who's-who list of friends from Arthur Fiedler - Conductor of the Boston Pops Orchestra - to Dr. Theodor Geisel aka Dr. Seuss.

She was professional, vibrant, energetic, and young at heart then - and still is.

She sends and answers her email and regularly checks her bank account online.  Amazing!

They have been a wonderful gift in my life and I will miss them.  But I know it's all good - and they will enjoy their new adventure living closer to Orienne's daughter.  They will thrive anywhere as long as they land there together.

...a beautiful love story - 30 years in the making!