Alvin A

 Have you ever had someone in your life who means more to you than words can convey? For me, that was my first boss out of Radiology School. To most he appeared gruff and abrupt. To me, he had the soul of a saint and a heart that beat for the service of others. 

Alvin A

By: Teri Carlson

 

I recently heard that each person would have 9 people enter their lives that will change them forever. Of course, I began thinking about who my 9 people would be, or if I have even met all of them. I suppose for most, the first two would be your parents. I know they certainly were for me. They gifted me with a legacy of love and faith by which I could build my life. My first love certainly had a huge impact on me, allowing me to experience a love beyond family, and a giving beyond myself. My husband, no, he was not my first love, but certainly my last. An unconditional love born from the spirit of give and take, and choosing, deliberately choosing to spend your life with each other every day.

But peaking towards the top of the list is Alvin A Zeman, MD. He was my first boss out of college. A Radiologist with an impeccable quality to read X-Rays, but so very much more. Dr. Zeman was the chief Radiologist at a local hospital, but he also had an office in the town where he lived. The office was in a rather large complex and serviced the imaging needs for the physicians who had offices there. That is where I worked. I performed the X-Rays in that office and a few other tasks. Now Dr. Zeman had a reputation for being rather gruff and short tempered at the hospital. My mother worked there and knew it only too well. When I told her that I had gotten a job with him, she begged me to reconsider. I had met him and had seen no apparent reason to forego working there, so I ignored my mother’s advice and happily took the job.

We had quite the cast of characters working there at first. He had two elderly women, well beyond retirement age working there. One was his bookkeeper and the other his office manager. The bookkeeper was so sweet, and she had been with him for years. She timidly sat in the corner of the office and for the most part kept to herself. The office manager on the other hand was quite outspoken, even in terms she was unfamiliar with. She positioned herself as indispensable to the doctor, even if it was only in her mind. Dr. Zeman would come in and talk to the two women, go over business, and share a story or two. He would then usher me into the reading room to dictate the radiology reports. One by one I would put up the exams and take them down, placing them back in the film jackets. What happened in between was truly remarkable. As he dictated the report, he would point on the film to each thing he was reporting. He was holding class, and I was his eager student. Without lecturing one word, I learned more from our reading sessions than I had during all of my years in school. Thoughtfully he would pronounce each word, reading everything he saw on each exam. If he was reading a chest X-ray, he didn't just report on the heart and lungs, he would comment on the visualized spine, gall stones in a gall bladder, or air trapped in a stomach. I believe he enjoyed teaching and growing my knowledge, it was the best part of the day for me.

Our relationship was slow to grow, but in time, he became one of the people I could count on most, and it remained that way until he died, long after he had retired. On the surface it would appear we had nothing in common but radiology, but that would be wrong. He was old enough to be my dad, Jewish, and had come up in a very different time and era than I had. I was in my 20's starting a family, Catholic, and I would venture to say a bit more liberal than he was.

Dr. Zeman's mind was like an encyclopedia, the knowledge he had on any subject flowed from him like a faucet. We had many discussions about Faith. Always peppered with respect, but he was able to tell me things I could have or would have never known. He spoke about the atrocities of WWII when he was stationed in Italy. His heart on his sleeve he spoke of people dying in the street outside of the Vatican, and he couldn't understand how with all of the wealth and the gold contained within the Vatican walls, they would allow this to happen. He told me how he did his residency at Cook County Hospital in Chicago, the poverty that surrounded him, how it affected the people he saw, and the injustices that remain to this day. The doctor my mother had heard about was not the man I was gifted to know.

He had a very generous spirit. He and his wife would travel the world, and each time they returned he would come to the office bearing gifts. Perfume from France, a hand inlaid photo album in ebony and gold from Japan, but even better were the stories he would bring with him. The whole world wrote the lines of his story. When my husband was out of work, he asked if Doug could do him a favor and help with some jobs around the house. Never making us feel that he in fact was doing us the favor, he took Doug under his wing, and paid him in cash for odd jobs around his house.

One of my very favorite stories of Dr. Zeman happened when our than three-year-old Ashley was riding her tricycle in our cul du sac. Like all of the children in our court they would leave their toys out from time to time since we were all young parents living there, we all had an eye out for each other’s children. Ashley had left her tricycle at the end of our driveway and our neighbor, not looking backed out of her driveway and ran over the bike. I came to work the next day telling the story, grateful that my toddler wasn't on her bike, since the neighbor clearly was not looking. The tricycle was a total loss, but I still had my sweet girl. A week later Dr. Zeman's huge Lincoln Continental pulled up in my driveway. I couldn't imagine why he was at my house. I went out to greet him as he was walking around to the trunk of his car. With a grin on his face, he opened the trunk and took out a beautiful red tricycle. It wasn’t just any tricycle; it had been his sons who passed away from a genetic disease at a young age. I called Ashley out to greet him as tears ran down my face. My little freckle faced blonde leapt with excitement as she hugged him. And that was the beginning of his bond with Ashley. It was love at first sight. She would turn his stoic nature to mush! He would often call just to talk to her on the phone. If we weren't home, he would leave a sweet message for her on the answering machine. I believe the last time she saw him was at her High School graduation party.

On one occasion when he called, my father-in-law was there because we had to rush our baby, Matthew to the hospital for a seizure. When he picked up the phone, he told Dr. Zeman what was going on. Mind you, he had been retired for a few years by then. I was no longer his employee, but our relationship had lived on. About a half an hour later we were in CAT scan with Matt and the phone rang. I thought nothing of it until the technologist looked at me and said the phone was for me. Confused, I picked up and at the other end was my mentor and friend Dr. Zeman. He requested a complete history of his symptoms from me, said some consoling words, and had me hand the phone back to the technologist. Later that night Matthew was admitted and had testing done to find the root of his issues. The next morning, very early, who should appear in his room? Yes, Dr. Zeman. Armed with an arsenal of lab sheets, books and imaging, he had already been down to speak to the Radiologist and the Pathologist. There he sat with us, explained to us, and calmed us. He was always there when I needed him, ALWAYS. For him, it was just as much a part of him as the air in his lungs or his beating heart to be there for those he cared about.

To call him my mentor would be an understatement. To call him someone I admired would be an injustice. My bond to him went well beyond tricycles and perfume, or even long afternoons reading films. It was a once in a lifetime gift wrapped in a very unsuspecting package. I don't think many people were shown the side of him I came to love. But if you were patient, a glimpse could be yours.

Before he died, he was in the hospital. His loving wife in an effort to protect him discouraged me from seeing him. I knew his days were numbered and I had to lay eyes on him one more time if only for a moment. I was working near the hospital, so I took my lunch hour to go see him. Wearing my scrubs, I walked in the room. To many he looked diminished, but to me all I could see was the strong wonderful man I had loved for years. He looked up at me from the chair, mistaking me for one of the nurses asking if I could get him some water. A soft smile formed on my face as I reminded him of who I was. He sat up and said, " It's Teri Carlson, my friend, and the best X-Ray tech I have ever known." I grabbed his hand, " yes, its me." We made small talk for a bit, and he grew very tired. As I got up, I took another look at him, I knew it would be my last. I cried the rest of that day, not so much for him, but mourning what I was about to lose.

He will always be with me in all the gifts he showered upon me in his life. His knowledge, his love, and compassion. His beautiful handwritten notes and letters. His soulful eyes, and his last words calling me friend.

I may have 9 people that will enter my life and change it, but no one will ever be this one.