1973

In Brooklyn again hard work, the same routine as before, great many patients in the office, which ran from 9 or 10 in the morning till 1 in the afternoon and from 4 till 7 and often till 8 in the evening. There was little time left for lunch and dinner. After dinner, I had to do much paperwork till late at night and never went to bed before 12, often later. In later years, I never worked on Saturday afternoons nor on Sundays, and I usually made good use of the weekends. We went very often on Saturday evenings to the opera, had subscriptions for many years up to the present time. From the opera we usually came home after midnight. If there was no opera, we usually went for the entire weekend to the children, where it was always pleasant for us and we usually came home on Monday mornings. Marvin became also very busy, had two jobs, in the Metropolitan Hospital and in the Flower & Fifth Avenue Hospital, in which he had his private office.

Perhaps I should have retired from medical practice then, but it was not easy to give up such a busy practice. I loved my work, loved medicine. I considered myself a modern doctor, since I read all the time the medical magazines, which were sent to me and thus was informed about new methods of treatment, new medicines, new discoveries, and progress in medicine in general. I regarded my patients as friends and was happy when I helped them to overcome suffering and distress, and their gratitude re­affirmed my belief and trust in humanity. So, I continued, al­though it was tiresome.

But, In general, we had a pleasant life, much social life too. We continued attending meetings of the Brooklyn Ethical Culture Society, and Hedy was very busy there as president of the Women’s Conference of the Ethical Society, which held meet­ings twice a month. She had to make arrangements for speakers, for showings of travelogues – and for these she often engaged me – for bazaars, etc. She was also a member of two garden-clubs, also took part in flower-shows, trips, etc. She drove the car, often on long tours, taking along up to five people in her car, either in Brooklyn or to Long Island. For a long time, I had two cars and she could use her own car. Later on, when I had only one car, she could use it, since I was busy in the of­fice and did not need it. The work in these organizations gave her much satisfaction.

For the summer of 1973 we went again to Mexico for about four weeks. We flew to Mexico City, rented there a car, and drove to Ixtapan, a spa with a very fine hotel, and stayed there for 10 days, made also some trips, to Taxco for a whole day and other places, then to San Jose Purua, also a spa, where we stay­ed again for 10 days. From there we went to San Miguel de Allende for 3 days, where Fanny joined us. She had visited some of her relatives in Mexico, had been to Acapulco and other places. We drove then together from San Miguel de Allende to Morelia and to Guadalajara, where we stayed for 2 days, and flew from there to New York. It was a very enjoyable vacation.

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