"Dr Evers"

He was the only doctor
in the small Ohio town
where I grew up.
His office was on main street
and was filled
with old beige, metal, painted furniture
that smelled like ether
and other medicines.
It was next to the Princess Theatre
next to the drug store
where my mother bought me
music boxes if
I did not drop
to the floor
kicking and screaming
as soon as we entered his office.
I fought hard not
to get the asthma shots.
Four small viles of medication
were sent to Dr. Evers
every week or so
from my Toledo Ohio
asthma doctor.
The amount of serum
administered increased
with each shot.
The pain also increased.
It was a shot a week to desensitize
me to all the stuff
I was allergic to
including our beloved
cat Butch. Another story.
Dr. Evers had his hands full.
However I never missed a shot.
You see who ultimately won.
It set me up for a lifetime
of dreading visits to the doctor.
Thank you so!
He had a black bag
he carried everywhere with him
that had all his favorite stuff in it.
There was a row of small bottles
filled with all different colored pills.
He had something for whatever
you had wrong with you.
As a small child
it verged on magic.
He always came to the house
when one of us was sick in the
beige, four door Chrysler
New Yorker he purchased
from my father.
He was never in a hurry.
After being sick all night
shortly before I graduated
from high school
my mother called him.
I had been growing sicker all night
and told my mother
I needed help.
He came to the house
checked me out
and said I had appendicitis.
He said my appendix
had to come out right away.
He ask me if I wanted
to go to the hospital
with him or wait for my folks.
I went with him in the beige
four door Chrysler New Yorker.
I remember backing out
our driveway wondering
what was going to happen.
By the time my folks
arrived at Detwiler Hospital
our only one
I was on my way into surgery.
When I woke up it was over.
Dr. Evers came by
the next day
and ask me to get up
and hold onto the bed
and walk around it.
I did and was soon home.
I later went to his
office and had the stitches
taken out.
Most of the stuff like measles, mumps,
colds and stomach ache
we just got over with the help
of some stuff
in a little brown bottle
my mother gave us for everything
called stomach cordial.
When we had measles
she covered the windows with blankets
and made us potato soup
and purple cabbage slaw.
We were lucky we never
had to deal with
polio, scarlet fever or pneumonia.
I remember a house I walked by
on my way to school
that had a sign in front
that said quarantined scarlet fever.
I wondered about that.
Dr. Evers always came
or saw you at his office.
Sometimes he came to the house
in the middle of the night.
He was quiet, understanding
and calm.
He was one of a kind
that has vanished
except in the memories
of his patients.