Dr. Frank Victor was having a bad day and it had only just started. This morning while getting dressed he burst a seam on his favorite pair of pants. Despite dieting and exercise, his waist line insisted on growing. It was just a sign of getting old he told himself.
Frank heard laughing in the hall and went to look. There was his wife covering her mouth, trying not to make noise.
"I hope you were amused," he said to her.
"Oh, darling," she said, "I tried not to laugh; I really did. You know I love you just as you are." Sally came over and gave him a big hug. He hugged her back and, as always, melted in her arms.
Frank held his wife of over 40 years at arms length and admired at how well she looked at her age of 62. To him she looked just a beautiful as ever and he wanted to spend the day with her.
He suggested staying home for the day but she insisted that his patients relied on him being at the office for their appointments.
When Frank showed his disappointment, she rubbed his ample belly and told him that when he gets home she will have a surprise waiting for him. However, she stated, he must be a good boy and go to work.
Frank knew that if his day started with his pants splitting, the rest of the day would not be any better. He took a deep breath and got dressed for work. His belt was now on its last hole as he positioned the waist of the trousers over his belly. Having to get a larger belt did not make Frank feel any better. He know that today his only consolation was, he would see only a few patients, and able to come home early to have a quiet evening with his wife.
He put on his coat, got in his car and pulled out of the drive, nearly hitting a passing car. Frank wished his day would be over soon.
Sitting before Frank, was a sobbing mother and her daughter. The mother was wiping away tears from her puffy brown eyes between sobs about her daughter's health. The daughter, she was telling him about, looked as if she did not have a care in the world. She just sat silently on his examining table and only stared at his jars of cotton swabs, bandages and other supplies by the sink.
Frank had walked in on the argument when he came to the office ten minutes earlier. The mother, Maria, had been waiting outside in the cold when the head nurse came and opened the offices. Julianne, her daughter, was ill and needed medical attention, she told the nurse.
Frank had hung his coat on the empty rack in the entry and ushered the two women to his examining room. His partner and others would be arriving soon and he did not want the mother crying in the lobby, disturbing the patients.
Frank was mad about Maria's waiting to see him. If Julianne was really as sick as she made her out to be, she should have gone to the hospital. As a friend of the family, he decided not to argue the issue with Maria. Maria's husband was dead and she relied on Frank's advice for almost everything. He convinced himself, this was one of those insecure moments of hers and she just needed some good advice.
Charlie's death was hard on Maria, and she never recovered from the change in her life. As a single mother she latched on to the only thing she had left, her daughter, and lavished her with attention. As a Doctor and a parent he felt that Maria tended to suffocate her daughter but since Julianne was always healthy he stayed out of it. He also understood that Maria relied much on the help and advice him and his wife could offer, and trusted them to keep all the family secrets.
Maria had serious concerns if she did not want the local hospital to find out.
Frank remembered delivering Julianne. Charlie, Maria's husband, was coaching her in the lemmas technique while he handled the delivery. It was the happiest he ever saw those two, even more than their wedding. It was a sad moment when Charlie died the following year. Frank attended the funeral with Sally and they offered to help the family any way they could.
Help her they did. Maria was unsure of herself for many years having relied on Charlie for everything. They helped Maria find a job and budget her money and even start up a college fund for, the then young, Julianne. There were the many occasions where he and Sally baby-sat for Maria, when she was at work. Sally even explained the facts-of-life to Julianne when she started menstruating.
Over the years both families have had countless dinners together and know most of each other's secrets. Julianne was even one of the bride's-maids when Frank's youngest daughter was married last year. The closeness between the families meant that they knew most of each other's secrets.
The greatest secret was when Charlie was found dead on the streets in another city. Frank, as the family doctor, saw the coroner's report.