To the Editor:
I enjoyed the Cheryl Douglas article on Holmes Hospital, as much of the information was new to me. It was a good piece of writing. She mentioned an upcoming piece on Phelps Hospital, an important piece of my childhood.
(Editor's Note: The article referenced ran in the Friday, Oct.
10, 2025 issue of the Community News Brief) My twin sister Kathy and I both had several eye surgeries at Phelps Hospital in the mid to late 1950s. I remember walking down a hallway with a gown that opened in the back, which I unsuccessfully tried to close, and especially recall the smell of the anesthetic ether. Our surgeon was one of the kindest persons I've ever met, Dr. C. L. Weston.
Driving by his old office on Dudley Street always makes me smile. I'll never forget his face and voice as well as his warm demeanor.
Fifty years later my wife and I became acquainted with his son, the late C. Don Weston, whose law office was in the same Dudley Street building. Amazingly the interior still looked much like it did when I was a child. C. Don told me his father had initially been a general surgeon who later decided to specialize in eye surgery. When I told him my experience with Phelps Hospital and how much I admired his father, he explained that everyone in that facility knew they were expected to be extremely quiet when he was operating..
One day I asked C. Don if he had ever considered a career in medicine. He replied that had been his goal when he was growing up. Then he told me a hilarious story. Every Wednesday afternoon his father took him fishing. At lunch one Wednesday, Dr. Weston told his son that a farmer had an accident that morning with an auger, resulting in a significant eye injury which required surgery. Dr. Weston suggested that C. Don accompany him to the hospital, observe the surgery, and then they would go fishing. In C. Don's words, 'I remember sitting down as the surgery began, and the next thing I knew I was waking up in a different room.
I had fainted. That very day I decided I'd rather have a law career.'
The multiple surgeries were quite an expense for our family because money was tight and we had no health insurance. Years later Mom told me it took her nearly twenty years to pay for the surgeries. That says a lot about Mom, who was our rock, and a lot about Dr. Weston.
Thanks, Ed Heflin
