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Fight Alzheimer's with "A Kick in Your Caduceus!"

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mikerault

Contributor
Messages
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Location
Alpharetta, GA
# of dives
200 - 499
As you all may know I have been happily married to my wife Susan for 36 years. Due in no small part to the love and support from her mother and father. Her father was actually my Doctor before I knew her...buts that is another story! Anyway, Doctor Hamilton, Susan's father spent 47 years as a country doctor in Georgia and the surrounding area. Doc wrote a book about his experiences about 10 years ago. After a few attempts to get it published it languished in a cardboard box for the last 10 years.

So...I published Doc's book, a collection or anecdotes from his 47 years as a country doctor. It started as a roughly printed manuscript that lingered for 10 years in the back of a closet. I scanned it in to my computer and used OCR (optical character recognition) software to recover as much of the text as I could then spent several nights correcting, editing and typing in hand written changes and additions that didn't make it in to a final printing the first time. Doc also painted, scenes for his life, scenes for day to day living. I then added pictures of Doc's paintings where I could find some that were at least tangential to the story being told.

2 years ago Doc was diagnosed with Alzheimer's. Luckily it isn't a severe form...yet. He still recognizes us but his memory stops short of his second great-grandchild, Hannah Marie, my grand daughter. Anyway, to try and do my bit for helping to eliminate this brain stealing disease, half the royalties will be donated to Alzheimer's research and the other half to help cover Doc's future medical and care costs in the future.

Doc wasn't aware (neither was Mary) that I was doing this, Susan, Marie (my oldest daughter) and I did a real good job of keeping it secret. We gave a proof copy to Doc on Valentines day. At first he didn't know what it was, until he recognized his drawing on the cover and saw his name as author! His eyes lit up and he spent then next several minutes paging through, reading here and there and remembering. Mary (his wife of over 50 years) got wide eyed and I think she was about to cry, if you could know Mary you know how much that is saying. Anyway, they both gave their support to making it publicly available.

Here is the books website, have a look!

http://caduceus.scubamage.com

Mike
 
Last edited by a moderator:
...okay they gave me a tear

that was very meaningful of you all, how great you take the time to do the important things
 
Mike, you are a treasure! Thank you for sharing and I will definitely be purchasing this book and of course, have it autographed! I am part of an alzheimer family, and this thread definitely struck close to home.

God bless you and your family!
Carolyn:shark2:
 
noticed one of the paintings was of VA Tech Football. Was Doc a Hokie?
 
Nope, he is Alabama! But he actually did paintings of many of the southern teams. I believe one or two might be hanging in one of the Banks in Lawrenceville, Ga. I am going to try get more shots of his other paintings to add to the gallery.

Thanks All!
 
So far have only raised $30.00 for Alzheimer's. I could really use you folks support!

http://caduceus.scubamage.com

Thanks!

Mike
 
https://www.shearwater.com/products/teric/

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