‘You're Not Being Fair to Your Family'

In earlier decades, most male physicians accepted that work would keep them away from their families. The women in their lives sometimes saw things differently. Recalled Dr. William Clark:

"I tended to try to get things all done before I went home to dinner. If there was a house call or hospital visit to make, I'd go before dinner. And so I was getting home at, you know, 7, 7:30 and sometimes 8 p.m."

"Maude Glassen was the little one-woman switchboard, right there in the lobby. One night, she said, ‘Dr. Clark, I've been watching you, and I'm going to speak right out. You're not being fair to your family, you're not being fair to yourself. I want you, when you leave this office, to go outside, look up at the sky and look at the stars. Take three deep breaths, get in your car, and drive slowly home. You have dinner with your family, and I won't call you unless it's a dire emergency. When you're through eating, you call me up and I'll put you back to work.'"

"So after that, I'd just leave things on the desk and come back later. I really tried to be home by 6:45 and have dinner with the kids. It was a wonderful, intuitive thing that Mrs. Glassen saw. My wife just blessed her heart for years."