The Vehicle of Empathy How do we empathize? I ask a person how they feel, and they tell me. I then try to imagine myself in their place, dealing with the issue they are experiencing […]

Joan’s First Essay, “To Be or Not to Be Wellbutrin” “‘Let’s talk about getting you off the Wellbutrin,” said my nurse practitioner during my annual physical exam. “‘You’ve been on it for, how many years?” […]

     I flipped off the headlights of my truck on Widgery Wharf in Portland and clicked my neck, first to the right, then more forcibly to the left. Another missed ferry. A half-eaten chicken salad sandwich […]

It was January 1986 and I had a rare weekend off from my island medical practice on Casco Bay. Childhood friends: Tux, Rudy, Bruce, George, and Rob arrived on the noon ferry and threw their […]

PEAKS ISLAND — It’s a warm summer day and you decide it’s a “finest kind” of day to take the ferry to Peaks Island. Instead of the Machigonne II, with a capacity of 399 passengers, […]

A Physician & His 4-Year-Old Partner   House calls are a throwback to the time when medicine was more art than science, and not all of my house calls have been resounding successes. On my […]

  Here is a bittersweet story about one of my most favorite people on Peaks Island (written with permission from the Sam and Martha McCain family). Martha passed away at home last night on Peaks […]

  Confessions of a Peaks Island Recreational Lobsterman: 5 Mistakes to Avoid Some years ago I applied for a Maine Recreational Lobster License. I owned a boat. I figured my back was strong enough to […]

Here’s a sneak peek of a part of Dr. Chuck’s book Go By Boat that features Peaks Island’s favorite curmudgeon, Bud Perry, and his hospitalization at Maine Medical Center. Legally blind and on dialysis, Bud […]

Photo by Paul Varnum on Unsplash Twenty-eight years ago, a moose swam to Peaks Island, two miles off the coast of Maine. It shook itself off and meandered down the beach feeding on beach pea […]