– Linda Hatfield

They were always two –
boys, brothers –
a dynamic duo,
not twins, but
conjoined in their calling:
to change
the face of medicine,
to soften
the ravages of pain and death.

Compassion,
dignity,
humility,
grace –
new manners
for the bedside of patients,
for seeing the person
not just the disease.

Honesty,
humour,
openness
engagement –
new approaches
to teaching the young,
demystifying sex
and the ethics of reproduction.

Men of science,
they made room for faith;
internists for whom
the eternal – the spirit –
informed their practice,
and dying was a journey
not to be feared.

Downtime was often spent
going up mountain trails –
one on foot,
one on horseback,
blooms and vistas viewed
from behind a lens,
images captured
to delight and inspire.

For thirty-three years
they stood together
against the worst
that pain and fear
could offer,
until that day
when neither could evade
their own cruel battle,
this one fought
alone –
each one helpless to help
the other;
for one, a broken body,
the other, a ruined mind.

Their legacy lives on
in their children
and grandchildren,
and others who carry forward
their vision,
follow in their footsteps
and embody
their courage,
their passion,
their love.

They were always two –
knights in white coats
on a quest to heal the world.