A hopeful memoir that shares the author's voyage of discovery as a mother, wife, and physician in underserved communities in northern Ontario.

In underserved areas, the communities themselves are one of the strongest parts of the health care team. Dr. Gretchen Roedde, a physician working in northern Ontario since 1978, shows how local communities play a major role in responding to illness, birth, and death, making each more meaningful and bearable.

Her memoir recounts stories from her long career, working with a Cree community to develop a medical vocabulary in their own language, training community-based health workers in First Nations communities, and conducting a house call with a priest to minister to a dying French-Canadian woman. In Roedde's stories, the boundaries between physician and community are redrawn, strengthening the capacity to care for those close by, in a hopeful and powerful example for the rest of the world.