The Making of a DoctorCopyright © 1997 Property of Deborah K. Fletcher for Florence MacLennan Brown. All rights reserved.My grandmother's name was Emma Frances Parsons. That was her married name. Her maiden name was Styles. She had just graduated from Miss Life Seminary, which in those days was equivalent to graduating from a private girls' college. She was engaged to be married to W. Solomon Parsons. Her mother had been dead for a number of years, and she had always hoped that her father would remarry, preferably the housekeeper or some woman of good standing, only to discover that he had remarried - only he had married the kitchen help to the cook. I think she showed her displeasure at it. On returning home one day she found that her stepmother had raided her hope chest and had cut and ripped all the beautiful things she had stored in it to be used in her coming married life. In a rage, she went downstairs, picked up an iron skillet, and cracked her stepmother over the head. Thinking she had killed the stepmother, she packed a bag, went to the bank and drew out the considerable amount of money her mother had left her, and boarded a train. Her father, other relatives, and her husband-to-be spent three years searching for her, only to find that she had spent three years at medical school and was interning at Belvue Hospital in New York. She was happy to find that she hadn't been accused of murder, was allowed to continue with her internship, and returned home a doctor at a time when woman doctors were not really accepted. But she did build up a large family practice. Her husband was very well-to-do, had a thriving business, and she set up a waiting room and an office in their large home. Please View and Sign My Guestbook © 1998-2000 Debbie Fletcher, joiya@tcia.net
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