He Was a Doctor but First He Was a Mentch

By Diana Levine

In Yiddish, a mentch is a person who is kind, compassionate, loving and caring.
In a small town that really isnt a town but a gathering of homes, summer cottages, a post office, a restaurant, a gas station, and a highway that goes somewhere but no one ever knows where lived a man named Sol Dombeck. He was a doctor but first, he was a mentch. He was a general practitioner, psychiatrist, friend, and a father figure to everyone who knew him.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: Oct 23, 2007
• ISBN: 9781465329608

Diana Levine

Diana Levine writing as Bubbe Levine has been a writer since 1981. She was a newspaper columnist before she began selling stories and poems to magazines. She has written five books for children before writing this, her sixth. Another book of childrens stories is a work in progress at this time. Bubbe Levine was a teacher before becoming a published author. She is a widow with two sons, eleven grandchildren and one great-granddaughter. She lives in New York State.

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Copyright © 2007 by Diana Levine.

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Contents

PROLOGUE

SEPTEMBER 1969

1970-74

1975

1976-80

1980-85

1986

JANUARY 1987

JANUARY 1988

In Loving Memory of Sol Dombeck MD

Feb. 4, 1910-Jan. 12, 1987

PROLOGUE

In Yiddish a mentch is a person who is kind, compassionate, loving and caring.

In a small town that really isn’t a town but a gathering of homes, summer cottages, a post office, a restaurant, a gas station, and a highway that goes somewhere but no one ever knows where lived a man named Sol Dombeck. He was a doctor but first he was a mentch. He was a general practitioner, psychiatrist, friend, and father figure to everyone who knew him.

I met him in 1969 and though he retired in 1975, he was part of my life until he died in 1987. It is twenty years since he died, but what I learned from him lives on.

SEPTEMBER 1969

What is it you want? I angrily asked the heavyset man with the smiling face who was standing next to my bed. Don’t you know 6:00 a.m. is an ungodly hour? I asked as I glanced at my watch.

I’m sorry to have awaken you so early. I make my rounds here this early because I spend the rest of the day in another hospital. My name is Dr. Dombeck. I am a psychiatrist as well as a family practitioner. Your doctor has asked me to see you because he has not been able to find any physical reason for your symptoms.

I was in the hospital for tests and X-rays to see why I was experiencing