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Couples who work in the same occupation often say they don’t bring work home with them. But Drs. Joe and Mary Sharon Peraud are an exception to that rule.
“It’s a great way to get a second opinion,” Joe said with a laugh, “and I think, for me at least, my wife has helped me become a better doctor.”
As her husband talked, Mary Sharon nodded her head in agreement. But the doctoring days for the Perauds are over — sort of. The two retired from their Fredericksburg Family Health Clinic on New Year’s Eve although they continue to work occasional emergency room shifts at Mercy Medical Center-New Hampton and Mary Sharon will continue to be the local medical director for Iowa Hospice and will serve on the board for Mercy Medical Center – North Iowa.
“All of us here at Mercy Medical Center – New Hampton will miss working with Drs. Joe & Mary Sharon on a daily basis,” said Bruce Roesler, Mercy – New Hampton President/CEO. “Over the past 33 years, they have cared for thousands of our patients and we will forever be grateful for their compassion and dedication to give the best quality of care to each and every patient.”
They are looking forward to the “little things” retirement has to offer, things like sleeping late, not answering the phone at night and visiting their three children in the Iowa City area.
That doesn’t mean, however, that their last day wasn’t emotional. They have served the people of Fredericksburg since 1976, and they have watched their patients grow old, grow up and grow into friends.
“I will cry,” Mary Sharon said prior to her last day at the clinic. “I’m honestly planning to cry. It’s an emotional time, and I will honor those emotions.”
They met in college. He was a student at the College of St. Thomas; she was a student at a sister college, the College of St. Catherine. Their academic careers soon merged onto the same track as they attended the University of Iowa’s College of Medicine and completed their residencies at Broadlawns Family Practice. In 1976, they moved to Fredericksburg, where they moved into a clinic that was built by the community.
“I think one of the things that attracted us to Fredericksburg was the passion and commitment the people had for medical care,” Mary Sharon said. “They made a tremendous investment in the clinic, and they still have that commitment today.”
Over the years, the two doctors have watched their original patients grow older, seen babies they helped deliver grow into adults and have treated the children of those same people they helped bring into the world.
“One of the advantages of working in a small town,” Joe said, “is you get to know what makes people tick. Because they’re our friends and neighbors, we know which ones have a high threshold of pain, for example, and which ones don’t.”
“We see our patients around town, at church, at the grocery store,” Mary Sharon said, “and I do think we get to know them in a way that doctors in bigger cities just can’t.”
The medical field has vastly changed since the Perauds first became doctors. Hospital stays, for example, are much shorter today than they were in the 1970s. Surgery, for another, has changed dramatically as laproscopic procedures have become the norm rather than the exception. But both husband and wife agree that one thing hasn’t changed when it comes to medicine.
“It is still about caring for people,” Joe said. “That hasn’t changed, and it really shouldn’t change.”
“There is a part of medicine that is really about compassion,” Mary Sharon said. “Our job was to care for others, to help make their lives better. And to do that, I think you have to care.”
On New Year’s Eve, they walked out of the Fredericksburg Family Health Clinic one last time. The new doctor — Luke Brinkman, who came to Fredericksburg in July — has taken over.
“Dr. Brinkman is a great addition to Mercy’s medical staff,” shared Bruce. “The hospital’s relationship with Fredericksburg Family Health Clinic is important for the people of Chickasaw County and we look forward to working with Dr. Brinkman for many years to come.”
Oh, there will be some ER shifts and Mary Sharon’s work with hospice, but for the first time in years, they are free to do what they want to do when they want to do it. They have some plans in the works — a trip to Florida in February and a ski trip to Colorado in March, just to name a couple. But Fredericksburg will remain their home.
“It has been a very good place for us,” Mary Sharon said. “It is home, and that is enough.”
Written by Bob Fenske
Tribune News Editor
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