Doctor Visit Time Machine

 So Wifey and I both had to visit our primary doc today -- she for a blood draw ahead of her annual "MDVIP" physical, and me so Nurse Nancy could do a cerumen-ectomy on me -- otherwise known as ear wax removal. Wifey and I laughed at what had become of romance: shared doctor visits. Is a couples' colonoscopy next?

Anyway, when  walked into the waiting room, I noticed a late 30s man sitting there, who had obviously suffered disfiguring injuries from an accident. Our eyes met, and I was struck with a deep sense of recognition -- I knew him from somewhere.

Sure enough, Karen, the office manager, announced to Nurse Nancy who was waiting to be seen, and said the young man's name. I said to him if he was in fact the person whose name I had heard -- he said yes. I told him I was his lawyer -- the one who met him and worked to settle his case well over 3 decades ago.

He was with an older lady, who was now married to his former case manager, who worked for our rehab expert. She had been his guardian, apparently, for many years. She knew who I was.

The young man looked far better than I may have expected -- I guess he's had a bunch of surgical repair work. He told me he finished high school and taught marine life lessons to kids at the special needs camp he attended as a child. My heart warmed.

I asked after his parents -- he was estranged from his Mom, which was probably a healthy thing -- she was no mother of the year. His Dad, a sweet guy, had died young, he said -- in his 40s.

Nurse Nancy told me he had been a patient a long time -- many people who get huge settlements and need a good deal of medical care, join the concierge practices. It made sense.

We finished our blood draw and ear cleanings and left for The Emporium for breakfast. I was really kind of knocked off kilter -- I last saw the young man when he was probably 6 or 7 -- three decades had passed, and he was doing pretty well. Money was zero issue -- I guess the guardianships our old firm set up for him worked as intended.

I didn't get to tell him that the lead lawyer on his case, Ed, had died last year. I don't think he knew, or cared to know, much about the mechanics of what we did for him legally. He just knew money wasn't an issue -- he never needed to work -- and that was a positive for him.

I'm back at the house now -- Wifey is out for another appointment -- trying to get her back and hips as pain free as possible before we leave -- 3 weeks from Friday.

A FaceBook (tm) memory popped up the other day. It was a photo of Dr. Eric and me at our college graduation in May of '83 -- we posed with our Moms, letting them wear our mortar boards. We were just kids -- a few months from moving in together at an apartment in Kendall -- he to start med school, and me to start law school. We were on student loans. We were happy but poor students.

Now, we're taking our brides on a luxury trip up the Danube -- Budapest to Prague. I have zero doubt that several times throughout the journey we will look back and toast the fact that we have followed the Joe Walsh lyric: "Life's been good to me...so far."

But man -- still shocked from earlier. My first huge case's client sitting in the same waiting room -- across more than 3 decades. Life can be kinda funny...