Mopping up to doctoring up

House Calls

By Gerald W. Deas, M.D.

While growing up, I was well aware of my mother working very hard doing day work. She did a whole lot of mopping and scrubbing floors to keep our family intact. Often, when she went out to clean other folk's homes. I would lighten her home duties by mopping and scrubbing her floors. When she would arrive at home, her face would light up to know that she had been spared another cleaning job.

While preparing for the study of medicine at Brooklyn College, I worked cleaning houses. I did much scrubbing and mopping in the homes that surrounded the college. It was an honest living and I was well paid. When I finished cleaning a home, everything was sparkling clean. The families for whom I worked often invited me to share their Friday evening meal. I never told the families of my interest in becoming a physician, however, they knew that I was in college. After finishing college and a stint in the Army during the Korean war, I entered SUNY Downstate Medical College and ultimately became an intern at Kings County Hospital.

One day, while walking down the street in front of the hospital, I was approached by a smiling women, whom I did not recognize. She greeted me with a hug and reminded me that I had worked in her home and of how appreciative she was of my doing such a great job. She asked me what I was doing at the present time. I told her that I was an intern at Kings County Hospital. Her next words were, "Do you have any weekends free?" It was obvious that she wanted me to work in her house. I told her my weekends now were filled up taking care of patients rather than mopping and scrubbing floors. She looked a little embarrassed and wished me well. I'm sure that she did not fully understand the transition that had taken place in my life.

Oh well, getting back to scrubbing and mopping: During my practice, I often made house calls on patients who were elderly. I recall that, one day, a wonderful patient with grey hair and an angelic face called me to make a house call. She was crippled with rheumatoid arthritis and hardly could walk. When I arrived at her home, she was in her kitchen mopping her floor. It was evident that the deformity in her hands would not allow her even to squeeze a mop. Before examining her, I removed my coat, rolled up my sleeves and filled her bucket with hot, sudsy water. I asked her to sit down while I mopped her floor. It was evident from the layers of dirt that her floor had not been scrubbed for many seasons.

I finished in 10 minutes and then proceeded to examine her. She related that, as a doctor, I should not have to be scrubbing anyone's floor. I told her that I had scrubbed floors way before becoming a doctor. The expression on her face, however, told me she understood the transition from mopping up to doctoring up!

I recall, when Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. made his great speech in Washington, how that influenced me when he said, if you're a street sweeper be the best street sweeper. Sweep it like an artist does when creating a beautiful picture. I can still mop floors and make them look beautiful.

This is part of the March 19, 2008 online edition of Frost Illustrated.

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