The Year that Was

A year ago I had just wrapped up my work for a Federally Qualified Health Center in Maine. I had spent the bulk of my career in two of them. In 2024 I worked almost exclusively for Galileo Medical, an innovative nationwide practice that spans from housecalls to video visits to texting with patients, different in different states and constantly evolving. I still do my weekly telemedicine Suboxone clinic for my old practice in Bucksport and I find myself being the go-to and backup, even though I now live 200 miles north of there.

Galileo’s headquarters are on Manhattan, actually on Broadway. And even though I have only been working for Galileo full time for a year, I have already been there several times, most recently in the middle of December. I’m going back in late January to meet with the other lead providers. We have a lot of zoom meetings and know each other pretty well from those, but meeting in person and brainstorming together is very important when you are a young company working in a vast market.

The last time I visited Manhattan, Della and I took in some of the sights, including the tree at Rockefeller Center and the crowded sidewalks at Times Square. In a few days the two of us will eat a home cooked gourmet dinner in the room I call the West Wing (as an old boy scout I have a built in compass), right by the Christmas tree. Then we will watch a movie and the live broadcast from Times Square. It’ll be different from the big multigenerational New Year’s celebration we usually have. My daughter just changed jobs and has to work New Year’s.

The last 5 1/2 years have brought more changes than most men my age go through; a protracted divorce, two job changes, a move back to the farm in northernmost Maine, the adoption of three horses and the death of one, the adoption of two dogs, a new relationship and being adopted by her huge family, the recognition as Maine’s Family Physician of the Year in 2022, and reacquainting myself with Manhattan - when I was an exchange student here 1971-72, I was halfway up one of the twin towers being built just then.

5 1/2 years - that’s how long my medical school training was at Uppsala University in Sweden. And, that reminds me, my class (of ‘79) had their 45th reunion this year, which I missed. But I did attend my delayed American 50th High School reunion last year. It should have been in 2022, but the pandemic made planning for such a big event uncertain.

So, much has changed in the last few years. But I’m rolling with them all. It’s all good, you can’t be too set in your ways.

I never really make serious New Year’s resolutions, but I maybe I’ll finally put out one more book

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