Mary Sizes the Coat

Monday we paid our first visit to the medical school. As I have mentioned, the University of Rochester Medical Center is across the street from Mary's house, so we have been most aware of its physical presence since we arrived. For one thing, the ER helipad is on top of a building across and just a bit to the north of us, and we hear the copters landing from time to time. For another, there is a little grove of trees on the hospital side of the street across from Mary, and there smokers come from the nearby medical buildings to take a break. We see people smoking who appear to be employees, and even a few patients out there in their hospital gowns. It seems anomalous to see such people at a world famous medical center. On the other hand, there are relatively few when you give the matter some thought, given all the people who occupy the nearby buildings.

In any event, Mary had some registration chores to address, and so all three of us walked the half-mile or so south along Crittendon, until we crossed the street and found our way into the back entrance of a spacious atrium that greets visitors to the school. Mary led us to the admissions office, then to place where people issued her an ID, complete with a nice new photo and bearing her name and the descriptor "Medical Student." She held the ID tightly in her hand until we returned home, shy about attaching it to her shirt, maybe not quite believing it. It was such a proud moment.

And another proud moment came a few moments later, as we made our way to the bookstore, where she was to be fitted with THE WHITE COAT. A pleasant clerk greeted us, and said "Congratulations!" when Mary told him the purpose of her visit. (We are hearing a lot of that from people around here, when they learn Mary is entering the med school.) I snapped a couple of photos, as you can see. Mary pointed out to us privately that it's really not a coat but more of a jacket. You get the full length white coat when you graduate. It was white coat enough for me.

This was not the official ceremony, of course. Once the coat was fitted, she gave it back. She won't see it again until a ceremony that will take place a week from Friday, at the end of orientation week. (How I wish Carol and I could be there, and the entire rest of the family.) The coat will have her name embroidered on it, plus the legend "daughter of Paul and Carol, sister of Macon, Kellsey, Walter, Morgan, aunt of Aidan and Honor, Felicity and Nautica." Congratulations to all of us!