3286. She had the skills © Bruce Goodman 3 August 2025

The Bible said “Physician heal thyself” but Olwyn’s method of recovery seemed a little strange. She had worked as a doctor all her working life. It was a ruse. She had never qualified as a doctor. In fact she had never even once in her life passed through the doors of a Medical School. All she had were forged papers of qualifications from Egypt and an enormous amount of bravado to even pretend to see patients. Now, after almost thirty years, she had come down with an illness she couldn’t diagnose. She was getting ill-er and ill-er by the day and felt if she went to see a real doctor her subterfuge would be discovered. It all began many years earlier when she went on a date and asked what he did and he said he was studying to be a nuclear physicist. Well, she couldn’t say she worked packing shelves at the grocery store so she said she was studying to be a doctor. The relationship came to naught, but she kept going with the deceit which had grown into a private practice. And now she was feeling decidedly ill and was stuck. She could prescribe medication for herself but she didn’t know what was wrong with her. During her final days at a hospice, visitors marvelled at the reputation of Olwyn the nuclear physicist. Her apparent worldwide repute was awe inspiring. She had used her scientific prowess to make the lives of many, many suffering people so much easier. At least she was good at something, but it was neither medicine nor science. Contact Author Back to Index Next Story Previous Story