About the Image(s)

This 56 year old photograph, (a 3.5x5 inch B&W image taken by my father) was displayed on my mother’s dresser from the year it was taken until the day she died. She enjoyed it daily for almost 6 decades.

I’m about 5 years old, completing a surgical procedure on a stuffed animal, assisted by my sister, as my mother walks in the background.

My earliest recollections are of wanting to be a physician; my parents tell me I never had interest in anything else. I’m unsure if I was genetically wired at birth, curious about science/healthcare (I loved my pediatrician!) or was subliminally nudged in that direction by my parents through play.

I wonder if the image depicts gender bias with my sister in an assisting (nursing) role. I suspect my mother enjoyed the image of us playing nicely together; that was not usually the case!

Unfortunately, I don’t have the original print. During a visit to my mother as her health was failing, I snapped an iPhone image of the photograph on her dresser and cleaned that up. My sister and I have 7 cartons of pictures/albums packed up from my parents’ home after their demise. At some point we will open those boxes and embark on organizing/scanning. Hopefully this original print is buried in that morass!