After weeks of uncertainty that left patients scheduling around borrowed time and worried whispers at Price Pharmacy, the board of Whitfield Family Practice announced Thursday that Dr. Sarah Chen, formerly of Memphis General Hospital, has accepted the position vacated by Dr. Harold Whitfield and will begin seeing patients on the first of June.
Dr. Chen, 38, holds credentials in family medicine and spent the last decade practicing in Shelby County before expressing interest in a smaller community setting. Opaline Voss, who operates the boarding house on Sycamore Lane, confirmed that arrangements for temporary lodging have already been made. "She wrote a very sensible letter," Voss noted, smoothing her apron with the satisfaction of a woman who appreciates good correspondence, "and she asked for nothing fancy."
Corrine Meeks, the county clinic's head nurse, has worked alongside the vacancy longer than most. The strain showed plainly in her voice when reached for comment. "This town cannot run on a part-time locum and good intentions," she said. "Dr. Chen's training is excellent. What matters now is that people stop putting off care they've been postponing since February."
Franklin Price at the pharmacy on Depot Street, who has quietly fielded more than his share of after-hours questions in recent months, declined to comment beyond saying the news was "welcome and not a moment premature."
Separately, the Corduroy Falls School District announced this week that Selma Odette Carver, third-grade teacher at Millbrook Elementary, has been named County Teacher of the Year by the district selection committee. Principal Horace Dunlap presented the award at a brief ceremony Tuesday afternoon. Edna Clarice Pruitt, retired schoolteacher and a woman not easily moved to praise, sat in the front row and was overheard telling Queenie Rosabell Pugh afterward that Miss Carver was "the first honoree in years who actually deserved it without qualification."
Also drawing attention this week: Gracie Nell Hollis, waitress at Ernestine's Diner on Main, redeemed a lottery ticket Tuesday morning for five hundred dollars after acting on a number combination she dreamed up during what Ernestine Polk described as a "perfectly ordinary Tuesday slow hour." Gracie herself seemed less interested in the money than in the fact that it had come to her while she was thinking about something else entirely. By Wednesday afternoon she had already mentioned, to at least three customers, that she had always wanted to see New Orleans. Wanda Sue Bledsoe, cook and self-appointed voice of reason, reportedly told her to put half in the bank first.
Fire claimed the better part of Beauford Sims's old cotton field off Route 9 Wednesday evening when a brush fire jumped a dry ditch and spread before the volunteer company could contain it. Though Sims retired from active farming some years ago, the land has stayed in his family for three generations. He stood at the fence line Thursday morning watching the char cool and said only that he supposed the field had earned its rest. Luther Washington, whose own acreage borders the eastern edge of the Sims property, helped with the firebreak and stayed until midnight.
Reverend Amos Thornhill devoted Sunday's entire sermon at First Baptist to what he called unmistakable signs of the final age, citing the brush fire, the bridge situation on Route 2, and what he described as a general loosening of moral fiber across the county. Attendance was notably high. Mamie Lou Craddock, seated in her customary pew, was seen nodding throughout. Whether in agreement or sleep remained, as ever, a matter of congregational debate.
