House in Weyburn
Water skiing continued, on the Nickle Lake Resevoir near Weyburn, but he did not bring the ski jump, kite or dock. He had hurt his knee on the jump and could not use it any longer.
Nickle Lake
Dad worked with his partners, Oscar Decter and Wayne Squires. It was a bit easier on him as he now had days and weekends off in rotation. There were other doctors in town and they all worked well together, assisting each other with surgeries and coverage.
Weyburn Hospital
Dad was well loved at the hospital. He always treated the nurses with respect and they responded. They also teased him unmercifully when he deserved it. Once he had a hemorrhoid, and decided to lance it himself. Well, he caught a vein and went to the hospital bleeding “like a stuck pig”. What’s that they say; a doctor who tries to treat himself has a fool for a patient? The nurses never let him forget that one.
Dad got them back though. I was living in Weyburn as an adult by then, in a farmhouse just outside of town. We had purchased a 1965 Chev half ton 5 speed stick shift to haul garbage and junk. It had originally been red, but now was more rusted out than anything. It chugged along merrily though, even if first gear didn’t work any more, and it started in second, with a great deal of grinding of the gears. It was a very useful truck and Dad loved to borrow it. He took it to the hospital and told everyone he had bought a new truck. What colour is it they asked as they ran out to look. “Oh, a sort of rust,” he replied.
A black cat, named Peg Leg, adopted them. When he came, he had an injured leg (hence the name), and Dad took him to the hospital and X-Rayed the leg. He then wrote up a medical history of the cat and sent it down with the X-Ray to be interpreted in the lab.
In Weyburn Dad learned to use hypnosis as part of his practice. He was thrilled with the results. Hypnosis was very suited to him, as he was always very quiet and relaxed by nature. He went to a conference in Banff and learned hypnosis and came back and started using it. Susan accompanied him on this trip and also learned to use hypnosis. Dad used it for all kinds of situations. He had great success treating children’s asthma and allergies. He was invited to speak to a doctor’s convention about one case where he was able to assist a woman who was basically dying from a colon disease. He found he could teach people to control bleeding. The main use he found though was in delivering babies. He would work with the mother during the pregnancy, teaching her to relax and not feel any pain. Then when he came to deliver the baby the women were relaxed and happy. They would walk to the delivery room, have the baby, pick it up and walk back. He used no drugs, and the results were healthier mothers and babies. He only agreed to deliver their babies though if they would breastfeed them. He soon became very busy delivering babies. Almost all the nurses came to him for their pregnancies.
The only areas he had little success with hypnosis were weight loss and smoking cessation. These were the two areas stage hypnotists often advertised success with. Dad said the lack of success was because people had to really want the result and often with smoking and diet they are really looking for a “quick fix”.
Dad hated the stage hypnotists, because he felt they misrepresented hypnosis and made people afraid of it. He tried to de bunk the myths surrounding hypnosis. One of these was the belief that hypnosis could be used to control people. He demonstrated this one day with Kathryn. She loved to be hypnotized, and one day he hypnotized her and tried to tell her she would no longer like pumpkin pie, one of her favourite things. She immediately sprang up and declared she would never stop liking pumpkin pie.
An operation
Not being a doctor, I don't know what body part this is, or why it is memorable, but Dad took the picture, and there must have been a reason.
Dad loved to teach, and was not afraid to use methods that were somewhat unorthodox, or assist anyone to develop an interest. The Weyburn Hospital acquired a defibrillator, and some of the staff in Emergency were a little nervous to use it. So Dad had them practice on recently deceased bodies! Soon everyone including the janitor was very comfortable using the defibrillator and lives were being saved, with no harm done.
Connie Milligan sent us these memories of working with Dad:
I graduated from the Grey Nun's School of Nursing in 1973 and came to Weyburn to work at the Weyburn Union Hospital .While working at the hospital, I always remember your Dad being very quiet, soft spoken and patient. He was very kind to his patients and gave his time freely to their care. Of course his reputation in the practice of hypnosis ,especially in labour and delivery ,gained him much popularity.
Dad’s big Lake Trout
Fishing north of Laronge with Graham. He particularly enjoyed the shore lunch prepared by the guide.
Mom and Dad both became involved in the Weyburn Flying Club. Their close friend and next door neighbor, Howard Hall was also involved in flying. Every year, the Weyburn Flying Club hosted a fly in breakfast out at the airport. Howard persuaded Mom to cook kippers for the event, and she would cook kippers on the barbeque for everyone that wanted them. They were very popular.
Kippers
Dad rented a hangar for the plane. One year it blew down in a windstorm, so he built another one with the help of friends and whatever children and children’s boyfriends he could rope in to the project. Kathryn had a boyfriend at the time who worked as a roofer, which was very handy for Dad as he did a fair bit of the shingling. Unfortunately he was not very good at it and a lot of the shingles blew off in a windstorm. The hangar was quite a project, a large Quonset style building with rounded beams that had to be hauled up in one piece. This was one of the first projects where Dad and Al worked together. Al said it was the project where he realized Dad did not know how to swear when he accidentally hit Dad’s hand with a large hammer.
Building the hangar
The Finished Product
Kathryn and Graham both got involved in swimming. Weyburn had an outdoor swimming pool which was very close to the house, and Kathryn and Graham both spent a lot of time there. Graham joined the diving club, and Kathryn got involved with synchronized swimming. Mom had taken many years of ballet dancing as a child, and taught the girls graceful hand movements. Dad installed the underwater speakers so the girls could hear the music underwater.
Synchronized swimming
There was one more family camping trip, this one Canadian style. It occurred when we were young adults. We met at Cyprus Hills Provincial Park and were able to use a group campsite for the weekend. John and his girlfriend, Susan and Al, myself and Dallas, Graham, and Mom and Dad came. We had a great time. Mom and Dad enjoyed camping the Canadian way, with the use of a covered and sheltered cooking area with tables, bathrooms, groomed campsites, barbeques etc they felt it was quite luxurious. They also enjoyed canoeing on the lake. Mom and Dad went out together in the canoe and Mom was paddling away in the front, little knowing that Dad was sitting in the back of the canoe, arms folded and enjoying the ride!
Canoeing in Cyprus Park
Group camping at Cyprus Hills
Dad was quite near sighted and had always had to wear thick glasses. Contact lenses became popular when Dad lived in Weyburn. He tried them and never went back to glasses. He had worn glasses since he was a child and was thrilled with the freedom contact lenses gave him. He called them his “eyes”, as in “Have you got your eyes in?” Mom would say. As he got older he needed bifocals, and was one of the first to wear bifocal contact lenses.
The grandchildren started to come along while Mom and Dad lived in Weyburn. First Sarah, then Christopher, Carolyn, Cameron, Gregory, Andrea, Zach, Michael, Sydney and Kyra Jade.
Grandma
Grand Babies
Sarah and Christopher
Carolyn and Andrea
Gregory Christopher and Sydney
Grandma, Sarah and Cameron
Great Grandma and Cameron
Michael
Kyra, Harp, Kate and Zach
Grandparents with Zach
Family Picnic at Moose Jaw Zoo
It was while living in Weyburn that Dad took up woodworking. He began to make furniture, and made coffee tables, a dining room table and benches, kitchen cupboards and counters, a built in stereo cabinet and a beautiful stand for a Petit Point tapestry Mom made. He also did extensive remodeling and refinishing in the house. Woodworking and building turned out to be very useful for him when he moved to the Dominican Republic.
The wooden table Dad made for Mom’s petit point
Mom enjoyed handicrafts. She got into tapestry making, and knitting and crocheting. She made bulky sweaters with patterns on them.
Mom always loved babies, and enjoyed making things for the grand babies. She made a sweater for Sarah that she loved and fit her from age 2 until she went to school, though it was a little worn by then.
Sarah in the sweater Mom made for her
Dad always hated paying Income Tax. He called Revenue Canada “Mr. Bloodsucker”, and was always looking for ways to reduce his taxes. Unfortunately, as he always used to say, a good doctor is a poor businessman, and he was a very good doctor. One year, he and a number of the other doctors heard about a scheme where they would buy art cheaply and then donate it to an art gallery, putting a larger value on it, and could claim a tax donation for the larger amount. They were assured it was all legal and above board. It sounded fishy to Mom and the rest of us and we urged him not to get involved, but he went ahead. For a few years he paid very little taxes and was quite happy with the plan.
Well, it all came tumbling down when Revenue Canada caught wind of the scheme which was definitely not legal. Dad and the other doctors were charged, and convicted and had to pay the money back plus large fines. Two of the doctors who had been the instigators of the scheme went to jail. It was a very bad time for Mom and Dad. They were humiliated when their house was raided by the police and their personal papers seized. They had to appear in court and testify. The papers were full of it. It even made the National TV show “The Fifth Estate”. Mom said the experience caused her to lose faith in Canada. Their only crime really was naivety. The doctors had been taken in by a con man who assured them the scheme was legal. Weyburn stood behind their doctors though, and there were even demonstrations at the courthouse in support of the doctors. The relationship between the doctors in Weyburn was never quite the same after that time, as Dad felt betrayed by the doctors who had got him involved.
Their friend and neighbour in Weyburn was Howard Hall. Howard spent a lot of time with the family. He used to invite us over for “champagne breakfast” on Boxing Day. It was a lot of fun. Howard was also a pilot, though he no longer owned his own plane. He always wore cowboy boots, and styled himself after westerns.
Howard Hall
Howard and Jean Hall
Mom was never as happy in Weyburn as she was in Bienfait. She did not get involved in the community in Weyburn as she had in Bienfait. She used to volunteer every year for the Cancer drive, but did not have close friends as she had in Bienfait. She was quite lonely, as Dad was very busy. This may have been due in part to the diabetes taking away her energy.
It was while they were living in Weyburn that Mom was diagnosed with type 2 diabetes. The diagnosis meant a major change in her lifestyle. She began a strict diet and exercise regiment that she remained faithful to for the rest of her life. She lost a lot of weight and felt healthier. She was able to manage the diabetes very well with diet and exercise for a long time before beginning on insulin.
Chiefly they looked forward to their holiday every year in the Caribbean. They went for a month every year, gradually venturing further and further afield, and exploring more of the Caribbean. They loved the Turks and Caicos Islands. There was a discussion about the Turks and Caicos Islands joining Canada as a province. Dad thought it would be a great idea and was very disappointed when the Canadian Government at the time did not accept.
Grand Turk
Dad was becoming increasingly tired. He was working very hard, and wearing himself out. He suggested a scheme to his partners that they hire another doctor, but keep the practice the same size, so that they could all have more time off. He thought the decrease in income would be negligible, as they would save in income tax what they lost in income. Unfortunately his partners did not agree. So Mom, who was very worried about him, persuaded him to take an early retirement.
They began looking for a possible site for their retirement; and discovered and fell in love with the Dominican Republic. They found they could live very cheaply there, so in 1982 they sold up everything, took some Spanish lessons, and moved down there, basically taking with them only what would fit in the plane.
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