DAy 73: Laura

Tonight I went to the Emergency Room at Ashland Community Hospital. Don’t worry, I am fine. Please give me a moment to explain. Today is June 18th and that is my friend Laura’s birthday. We met when we were in the third grade. Laura was smart and practical and her fingernails were perfectly manicured. I’d never seen a kid my age with pretty nails before. I was impressed from the start. Laura and I became friends that year and have remained so for 40+ years.

One year we worked on a science fair project together. We bought one of those clear plastic models of the human body and put it together. That’s it – end of story. I don’t remember what our grade was but clearly we did not perform any experiment – or test any ideas. We put a model together. At the time we both thought that we would study medicine one day and I guess this was our way of saying that we were serious about it.

After high school I enrolled in pre-med courses at Brooklyn College and struggled with the coursework. A year or so later my sister was diagnosed with Cystic Fibrosis. I spent a lot of time in the children’s ward of the hospital visiting her and saw so many sick children. I could not see myself doing that on a daily basis and began to question my goals. One day my Psychology professor asked us to take out a piece of paper. “Write down one thing that you love to do” he said. I wrote the word “bake.” Then he asked, “Does anyone make a living doing what you wrote?”

Of course they do. And little does he know it, but that professor helped change my life. I grew up thinking that I wanted to help people – and never thought seriously about my love of baking until he asked that question. It took a few years, but I did study baking at the Culinary Institute of America and have found that my way of helping people has been along a much different path than I first envisioned.

My friend Laura did go on to study medicine. She studied at The Albert Einstein College of Medicine and is now in a practice in New Jersey. I know that Laura is always busy and that the life of a doctor, especially one that is as caring as she, can be hectic. And that is why I visited the Emergency Room. I wanted to bring a quiche to the doctors and nurses on duty in honor of my friend Laura. She is one of the best people I know and I am sending her my best wishes for a very Happy Birthday!