I Asked the Doctor to Take Your Picture

Should I apologize because I happen to have so many pictures of Billy Viner? I've mentioned before some reasons why. I am glad to have them to illustrate the email he wrote this weekend, a story that discusses both high school and the years he’s lived since. The rest of the post contains his words alone:

It’s great to hear from our old classmates and see where life has taken them. It seems as though all of us have ended up making it through unexpected hardships and also having joyful times as well. I hope that more of us will share their experiences before the big day. I guess after that, we will all get along with our lives at least for the next 10 years when we meet again. If you need material for your blog, I thought I’d share my last 20 years and perhaps a bit of history before that. It may explain my behavior through high school.

To be quite honest, I did not enjoy high school as many of our classmates did. Just before 9th grade, my parents had a bitter divorce, which was out of the blue for us kids since they hid it from us pretty well. The next thing I knew is that my dad moved out of state to avoid alimony and child support and really didn’t want much to do with us anymore. Nowadays they have laws in place to go after deadbeat dads, but back then it was different. Well, my mom, who has bipolar disorder (also unknown to us kids at the time), had to be placed in a psychiatric hospital. That left my older brother and me to fend for ourselves, and my younger sister landed in a foster home. I’ll spare you the details, but this was a miserable time for me and I reacted by drinking a lot on weekends. I thought about quitting school numerous times as well as other things. Fortunately, I had some great friends (Trevor Matherly, Henry Whitty, and Brett Haaga) who helped me out and gave me the stability I desired. Without that, I don’t think I would have graduated.

After graduation, I went to LSU and joined the Army National Guard. During that five years, I worked in several restaurants, pledged a fraternity, and discovered my calling in life. I met my future wife, Barb, at Mike Anderson’s Restaurant, where we worked during my senior year. I was accepted into LSU Medical School in New Orleans and spent the summer backpacking in Europe before starting. The next four years were spent in the drab grey buildings adjacent to the Superdome and the massive Charity Hospital. I learned how to study for hours on end, and I forgot how to socialize with non-medical people. In my free time, I worked at the Jefferson Parish Prison, which was quite an experience. The best part of that four years was my marriage to Barb and the birth of our first son, Kaigan.

I chose the specialty of ob-gyn and moved to Little Rock for the next four years. I must have been drinking again because I chose the specialty with the longest hours, highest liability insurance prices, and near lowest reimbursements. Oh, and I changed the spelling of my name because it was always mispronounced and because of its similarity to the female reproductive organ that I would be studying so much. I spent the four years working nearly every day and every fourth night on call. We had a daughter, Mikaylie, and just before leaving Little Rock, we adopted our second daughter, Brylie.

I found a job in Somerset, Kentucky, in 1999 and am in a group practice, which is doing pretty well. We adopted our second son, Wil, and then Barb gave birth to our last daughter, Nani. I think we’re done. We bought a small farm and we raise horses, goats, cows, chickens, dogs, and cats. We love to travel, go to church, and just hang out on the farm. I never thought I’d end up where I am now. My life has truly been blessed.

Hope to see you all at the reunion. If you’re ever in Kentucky, look me up. Thanks to all the organizers for their work in preparation for the party and to Kris for the blog, where we can catch up and share our triumphs and tribulations.

Bill Viner (aka Billy Vajnar)