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Helping Others Heal: A pint of pickles and the spirit of Mayo Clinic
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When Warren and Marilyn express their love for Mayo Clinic, they start with a pickle recipe they received as a gift from Sister Generose Gervais.
The framed handwritten recipe for pickles adorns a wall of Warren and Marilyn Bateman's home in the hills of Maggie Valley, North Carolina. It was part of a birthday card for Marilyn and includes a scrawled signature below the pickling process. The recipe has become one of the Batemans' most treasured gifts.
The Batemans say they're blessed by the values and memory of Sister Generose Gervais, the longtime administrator of Mayo Clinic Hospital, Rochester — Saint Marys Campus. The iconic pickle recipe from Sister Generose is a reminder of her compassion, respect and excellence.
"She was a delight," Marilyn says with a smile as she recalls Sister Generose, who passed away in 2016. "Always wanting you to stop to chat and have a candy from her candy dish or help her make pickles."
A Special Visit to a Special Place
Warren and Marilyn grew up in small Minnesota towns. Warren lived in Plainview, Minnesota, about 19 miles away from the world-renowned medical institution in Rochester, where he made one of his most cherished childhood memories in 1934 — before Marilyn was born.
In that humid August, Warren — then 11 — joined his father to travel in their Studebaker from Plainview to Rochester to see President Franklin D. Roosevelt honor Drs. Will and Charlie Mayo.
"I was very small, so I was able to wriggle into the front row," Warren says. "To see the president — that was a big deal. And for the president to come here, it was special." Read the rest of the story.
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