Читать книгу Welcome Home From Vietnam, Finally - Gus Kappler MD - Страница 8

Robin Viverito and I, Eddie Kappler, first dated at Port Jefferson High School in 1957. She knew she would marry me. I had no idea seventeen-year-old girls (women) thought that far ahead. We committed before I departed for Cornell University in Ithaca, New York, to begin my pre-med studies.

I studied incessantly, majored in chemistry, joined the Theta Xi fraternity, played some basketball, did some partying, did honors research in chemistry, was president of the house my senior year, and was accepted to Cornell Medical College in New York City.

Dr. J. Johnson was my faculty advisor. The best advice he gave me was to take the rigorous German language course, a requirement for chemistry majors, in my junior year. I could not process the spoken portion and did so dismally that I had to take a makeup course the next year to graduate. Thank goodness I did have the senior year. There were three of us in that class who had been accepted to medical school. I felt a little better.

Robin visited Cornell frequently; took her SATs during a fraternity homecoming weekend milk punch party; studied elementary education at Notre Dame of Maryland in Baltimore; partnered with me in the summers in the Hamptons; taught in Middle Island, New York, after her graduation from college; planned our wedding; and with her mom began sewing her wedding dress and the bridesmaids’ dresses.

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After I was born, my mother negotiated with my dad and his parents that yes, I would be named Gustav Edward Kappler III, but I would be addressed as Eddie. She disliked the name Gus and referred to my dad as Kappy. Once I left home for college, I became Gus. Robin causes great confusion in the faces of new friends when she discusses her husband, Gus, in their conversation and then asks me, Eddie, to pour more wine.