Cell 2 Soul: The Humane Health Care Blog

Titanic to Taxis

by Beatrice Elpern

On April 18, 1912, my father, Albert Zuflacht, was 20 years old and working at Gimbels department store on 33^rd Street in New York City.

 He was approached that day, and asked if he knew how to operate an electric car.

He answered honestly. “No.”

“Well,” they said, “you will learn.”

And he did.

Carpathia at W. 12th St, Pier, 4/18/1912

That very day, he drove the electric car, filled with blankets from the store  on 33^rd Street, to Pier 54 in Manhattan. The Hudson River pier at Little West 12^th Street was where survivors of the Titanic disaster would be brought by the Carpathia that evening, three days after the “unsinkable” ship sunk on its maiden voyage.

I often wonder if learning to drive that day led to my father’s career choice.

My father became one of the first taxicab drivers in New York City. It was he and several other drivers who successfully lobbied for taxicab insurance in the city. And when the bill was passed, he became president of the first taxicab insurance company in this country: The 20^th Century Taxicab Insurance Company.

That company eventually went bankrupt in the Great Depression, but he remained in the taxicab insurance business for the rest of his working years.

There was a time when every cab driver in New York City knew the name Albert Zuflacht.

Author Bio:  Betty Zuflacht Elpern resides in Bronxville, N.Y. only six miles from where she grew up in the Bronx.  Her memories tie us to a time our young readers can only marvel at.  You may email her at BZE.

Ladder of Sorrow

A Country Doctor: In Memoriam

Far from the madding crowd's ignoble strife,   
Their sober wishes never learn'd to stray; 
 Along the cool sequester'd vale of life
They kept the noiseless tenor of their way.  

Clayton W. Nesbit, M.D. (1938)

Born: 10/15/10, Pittsfield, MA
Graduated Pittsfield High School, first in class, 1928
Graduated Williams College, Phi Beta Kappa, 1932
M.D. Harvard Medical School, 1936;
Internship Albany Hospital 1936-37;Residency St. Luke’s Hospital, Pittsfield, MA, 1937-38
Marriage to Marion Bastow, July 2, 1938
City Physician, Pittsfield, MA 1938-1942
U.S. Navy, Active Duty, 1942-1946
General Practitioner in Pittsfield, MA 1946-1965
Incapacitating Stroke: August, 1965
Death: April 6, 1982

"My father was the kind of doctor about whom people today often reminisce wistfully, an old fashioned family doctor in all the best senses of this phrase."  Read Jennifer Shapp's moving tribute to her father:  Download My father Clayton Nesbit

You may contact Mrs. Shapp at: J. Shapp

The Global Child

by Sasha Zuflacht, Union College '13

"My college offers a special term abroad in Siem Reap, Cambodia. Along with four other students I have the unique opportunity to intern in one of the most challenged countries in the world. My program is with the Global Child- a school that provides a rigorous education for former street children. This non-profit provides these kids not only with an education but also with life skills, a cultural understanding of their country and its traditions, and training for employment and citizenship.

I am overwhelmed with both excitement and nerves. I have already fallen in love with the students dedication, maturity and adorable demeanor. Seeing their smiling faces always brightens my day. They have experienced so much turmoil at such young ages, and yet they come to school with such positive attitudes. The Global Child is certainly a school of "today's children, tomorrow's world."

You can follow her at: Sasha's Sojourn in Siem Riep.

A Separation

A Separation (in Persian Jodái-e Náder az Simin, "The separation of Nader from Simin") is a 2011 Iranian drama written and directed by Asgar Farhadi.   It focuses on an Iranian middle-class couple who separate, and the conflicts that arise when the husband hires a lower-class caretaker for his elderly father, who suffers from dementia.

David Thomson for The New Republic wrote:
"You cannot watch this film without feeling kinship with the characters and admitting their decency as well as their mistakes. The American films made this year that deal with the internal detail and difficulty of family life are airy, pretty and affluent compared with A Separation."

This should be enough to induce you to see this amazing film.  You will carry Nader, Simin, and the other characters away with you.

Banjo's Babe Ruth

Here's a fine tribute to Earl Scruggs who died on March 28, 2012.

The Ordinary is Extraordinary

Dr. Yoon Cohen took this photo in her suburban Cleveland neighborhood on March 23, 2012. Please click on image to appreciate it better.

You may contact Yoon at Email.

Al Ross, Cartoonist and Centenarian

Al Ross, whose droll cartoons featuring married couples, bar habitués, anthropomorphic animals, philosophizing prisoners, art and publishing world denizens, anachronistic mythological figures and loyal Mets fans appeared in The New Yorker for more than 60 years, died on Thursday in the Bronx. He was 100.

Link to Full Obit

Howard's End

Howard Spiro passed away recently.  He was a force in the medical humanities.  A generous, humorous, somewhat Falstaffian, character.  Loved to tell a good story, the companonship of friends and colleagues.  Mory's was his stage.  He tacked against the academic wind at Yale, but was respected nonetheless.

Brian Maurer's personal Tribute to Howard is worth reading.

More formal Yale Announcement.

For those within drivng distance, a memorial service has been planned for Saturday, March 24, at 11 a.m. at The Unitarian Society of New Haven, 700 Hartford Tpke, Hamden, Conn.

From too much love of living,

         From hope and fear set free,

We thank with brief thanksgiving

         Whatever gods may be

That no life lives for ever;

That dead men rise up never;

That even the weariest river

         Winds somewhere safe to sea.

Marginal Notes: A marriage of humanity and medicine

"The Doctor" by Sir Luke Fildes, 1887

Medical practice lay a-bed,
With fever to the core;
Sickness festered in her head,
While death passed by the door.

A string of suitors, all untrue,
Had left her bed of pain,
Parties of the third did woo—
Though not for love, but gain.  more»

 

Brian T. Maurer has practiced pediatrics as a Physician Assistant for 32 years. His "Marginal Notes" column appears periodically in the Cell2Soul Blog. The title "Marginal Notes" is taken from a quote by Henry David Thoreau: "I love a broad margin to my life."