Death and Life in the Pharmacy

A few years ago I got a call from a pharmacist friend I worked with almost 50 years ago. He said he heard that I had died. I assured him that if I had died it wouldn’t have slipped my mind and I'd know enough to lie down. True, my back went out a few days ago and I’ve been laid low but surely that’s not quite the same.

Come to think of it, when I looked in the mirror this morning, I didn’t see anyone but this was after a hot shower and the glass was foggy. It got me thinking that if I had died this must be my afterlife and it’s not so bad after all.

Pharmacists hang around with other pharmacists possibly because they are so boring nobody else would put up with them. I was happy not to keep many as friends. The profession itself was depressing enough.

There are exceptions, of course. Ed, the bearer of my grim news, is a good man who had always reminded me how one could happily get through the day finding fulfillment relating to patients; advice which saved me from the despair of just counting and pouring for decades to come. 

I found that empathy came naturally to me and was its own reward. However, it is not true that I never dispensed a drug without trying it myself.

I recall that there was another pharmacist with my name. I met him once and regarded him as my generic equivalent. One always thinks of oneself as a brand name. Perhaps it was this Norm Levine who checked out. I’m sorry for his family. To lose one of us is a misfortune. To have lost two would have been carelessness. (Thank you, Oscar Wilde.)  

I take it back about pharmacists. I met my match a dozen years ago in Jack. He not only turned his back on pharmacy but proved it by retiring 15 years before me. I have great respect for his vision and commitment to higher ideals. He was also my doppelgänger. We both graduated from Forest Hills High School, had pharmacies in the San Fernando Valley with pharmacist-fathers who attended Columbia University and both have daughters named Lauren. Sometimes I would call him to find out how I’m feeling.

In any case, I'm sure if I had passed away Jack would have felt a twinge and called me at once. In fact, it was Jack who died a couple of years ago and left a hole in my life.