Stethoscope

Stethoscope

Rummaging around in the garage trying to bring order to chaos, I ran across a box hidden on a shelf. It was the size of a fruit box and contained items of my father’s medical practice. I remember bringing it to Montana years ago but forgot about it once I put it in the garage.

Inside I found my dad’s framed Bachelor of Science degree (1942) and his Board of Pediatrics certificate (1950). Among other medical equipment that I know nothing about I found, enclosed in its original box, his stethoscope. Opening the box and holding the stethoscope in my hand, I felt I was touching a part of my dad who died almost two decades ago.

A stethoscope is a medical instrument for detecting sounds produced in the body that are conveyed to the ears of the doctor through rubber tubing connected with a piece placed upon the area to be examined (Webster Dictionary). Stethoscopes are a dime a dozen in the hospital where I volunteer as a chaplain. Doctors and RNs hang them around their necks or stuff them in their starched white medical coats.

My dad had a way of using his stethoscope to deter a child’s fear of being in the sterile medical office.  As a child he would let me grab hold of his stethoscope and let me listen to his heart beat. He must of thought that such interest in his stethoscope was the beginning of my own medical career. That was not to be.

I plan to make a shadow box that would showcase dad’s stethoscope and medical degrees. I don’t want them hidden in a box in the garage any more. My appreciation for who my dad was and all that he did encourages me to keep my nose to the grindstone and not slack off just because I am getting older. That shadow box hanging in my home office will be a reminder of his life well lived. A man who deeply cared for the well-being of his patients.

Now off to Hobby Lobby with Judy. I don’t have a clue on how to make a shadow box.