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Connections Over Time
mong the keepsakes that tell their own stories are the knitted Mr. and Mrs. Santa figures we have, perched atop
AMason jars. Th ese were gift s from a former patient of mine, a talented knitter. I remember the moment she gave them
to us vividly. It happened after Sharon had joined me in the department of medicine in Saskatoon. A patient, for reasons
unknown, had requested a consultation with Sharon, suspecting an internal medicine issue. Sharon arrived with her
team, including a couple of residents, and the patient greeted her with a surprising remark: “Oh, Sharon, you look just like
your grandfather!” Confused, Sharon clarified, “No, no, he’s not my grandfather.” But the patient insisted, convinced she
recognized a family resemblance. As it turned out, this patient had been a nurse in Hamilton, and she had been treated by
my father years earlier for a skin condition. She had been waiting for Sharon’s visit, expecting to meet someone connected
to the man she remembered fondly. The Santas have been with us ever since, a whimsical reminder of that encounter and of
the connections we often don’t realize we’ve made.
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