Chapter 4: MEETING DR. SULLIVAN

May 2001
In the mist of my research and doctor’s appointments I also had a life (barley). Mark was schedule to preside over a wedding on May 5th for couple who were relatively new members of our church. Timothy and Veronica joined less than a year ago. Veronica was in her early thirties and Timothy was about eight years older, Mark and I really liked them. We were invited to their wedding, which was not usual. Most of the time when Mark performs a wedding he and I get invited to the reception out of courtesy, the couple hoping (at $50 a plate) that we decline, and we usually do. This time we knew that the couple really wanted us there, they even invited our kids. We told them that we would come, but that we would get a sitter.
It was a beautiful wedding. They hire wonderful singers and musicians from New York. The party was fun and we were glad that we went. It was a nice distraction.
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I scheduled an appointment to meet Dr. Sullivan for May 10th. I was surprised when I got his address because most of the doctors that I have gone to have had their offices near the hospital, his was not. The office was located in an area away from the hospital that I had never been to before. The building was a stand-a-lone type in a residential area, and all the tenants were involved in medicine in one way or another. It was an attractive building, and there was plenty of parking which was great compared to the medical buildings by the hospital where there is almost none.
I walked in to the building and gasped as I look around the lobby. It was beautiful. What was so unusual was that the lobby was a three-story atrium, with a glass ceiling. There were benches, plants, flowers, and trees. I mean really tall trees. The problem was that I couldn't find the stair case. I did locate the elevator but I like to use stairs whenever I can. So I was forced to use the evaluator (the stairwells were well marked on the upper floors, just not in the lobby) I found his office and checked in.
The waiting room was a medium size, painted in soft blue and purple (+) there was a coat rack (+) a water cooler (+) and a fish tank (+) an open attractive reception desk (+) and best of all NO TV (++) I gave it an A. I filled out more forms, and then waited. It was a very busy office.
Finally I was brought in to an exam room where I was given instructions to wait; the nurse left the room leaving the door open. I sat on the exam table reading my book. The book that I was reading was called: A Walk in the Woods, by Bill Bryson. This book caught my attention when I was working in a book store because it sold so many copies. I wondered who would want to read a book about some guy walking the Appalachian Trail. Curiosity got the best of me and I borrowed the book from the Library. So, as I sat on the exam table laughing to myself, from the corner of my eye I caught the image of a man in a white doctor's coat dashing by, the man was tall and African American. For some reason that I will never know, I knew that he was Dr. Sullivan, I have always thought of myself as not being prejudice, yet that fact that he was black caught me off guard for a few seconds. Then I remembered reading that he had been educated in the West Indies. That fact should have told me that he wouldn't be blond haired and blue eyed.
It was not like I only go to doctors who were white males, I don't. Dr. Munn is a woman, my daughter's pediatrician is an Asian Woman, and Sam’s neurologist is Indian, not to mention a slew of other ethnic doctors that I have been to. Yet, isn't it strange that at 45 years of age I was about to be treated by an African American doctor for the first time. I didn’t give his color a second thought; I went back to my book and waited to see the highly recommended doctor that my research brought me to.