Baylor University Medical Center Proceedings January 2014, Volume 27, Number 1 | Page 60

had a college education. My mom was the one in our family who
could drive the car. Neither my grandmothers nor paternal aunts
drove—something not uncommon in that era—so my mother
became the de facto driver for medical appointments. There wasn’t
much medical care in our little town, so if a specialist was needed a
drive to Tulsa about 1 hour away was necessary. Mom, as the driver
and the medical translator for our family, became the central person
who took care of the grandparents and the elder aunts. As a small
child I went along. I can remember thinking at one point, while
sitting in a doctor’s waiting room, what was going on behind the
door. Because of such experiences, I recognized how important
the doctor visit can be in a patient’s life. For the physician, a single
patient is just one of several that day, but for the individual patient
seeing the doctor was a major event. The family may have waited
many days or weeks for the appointment, and getting to the appointment might have been quite an undertaking. Witnessing those
visits set the foundation for my medical curiosity.
Although I developed a strong respect for the medical profession, I really didn’t think about becoming a physician. I’d
never seen a female physician locally. Our small town doctor
was a man. When I got ready to go to college, I was still very
curious about how things worked. I decided to study engineering. I really enjoyed engineering and got a bachelor’s of science
and practiced engineering for 3 years.
Roberts: Where did you go t