Stories – Olaf Kroneman

Standing in the Shadows

An old blues man contemplates his life, loss, loves, and hopes. I’ve always liked to watch the young ladies dance. They still make this old man smile. It’s not foolish and hot, like the old days, it’s different, nicer. It’s admiration for the work of the Great Sculptor. It’s the same feeling I get on…

INTO THE WHITE- A LATE WINTER BLIZZARD

INTO THE WHITE by Olaf Kroneman Pediatricians called them FLKS, funny-looking kids. Not a very sensitive term but professionals knew what it meant. There was something wrong with the infant but they couldn’t quite make a diagnosis. At birth, he was labeled an FLK. His forehead was very prominent, his eyes were large…

A RUMBLE FOR HUMANITY

Your heroes can compromise you. Muhammad Ali put me at risk. The first time I encountered Ali, then Cassius Clay, was on television. I was ten years old and saw this young black guy dressed in a tuxedo and top hat, brandishing a walking stick and reciting poetry. He was scheduled to fight Henry Cooper in England.…

The Romantic by Olaf Kroneman

He humiliated me over and over. But I took it. I made mental, emotional excuses. I loved him. The abused will do that. Don’t ask me why. He insisted we take pictures. I did not want to take the shameful, salacious videos, but you know how when you can sense the end of a relationship…

Cuddle the Schizophrenic But Fear the Bi-Polar

1967-“The Summer of Love.” It was a great time to be in San Francisco and Haight –Ashbury, smoking pot and dropping acid. But not an ideal time to be a first year medical student in an inner city Detroit hospital. Location, location, location. For five days in July 1967 Detroit burned. Forty-…

An Old Colt Cobra

(Published in the 2019 spring/summer issue of “The Moonshine Review”) From an early age, Bronco obsessed over the Kennedy assassination. He found himself in juvie on November 22, 1963, just starting his life of crime. Though old now, he still reviewed footage of the assassination before each job. He watched the event over and…

In Sickness and In Health

Green Hills Literary Lantern A conference call: “I can’t believe he’s gonna marry the little witch,” Max said. “Witch?” Jennifer asked. “Don’t you mean bitch?” “I hate that word,” Max said. “A woman should never use it, no one should ever use it.” “There are worse things you can be called,” Tiffany said. “The new one…

Detroit 1967

CBS News Special Report: We interrupt the Detroit Tigers baseball game to bring you this news bulletin. The news rarely interrupted TV programs, and when it did, something bad had happened. That’s how he’d learned of the Cuban Missile Crisis; the sinking of the Navy submarine Thresher; the construction of the Berlin Wall; the murder of…

Everybody Loves the Foodman

everyone loves the foodman by olaf kroneman

I feed the starving. I feed the dying. I’m no Mother Teresa, but the act of feeding the unfortunates who can’t eat appeals to me. How could you not like the person who feeds you? You don’t bite the hand. I feed people, patients, whose stomachs are diseased or destroyed; destroyed by rare diseases, infections,…

What Emily Post Has To Teach Us About Cultural Competency in the Clinical Encounter

In my essay “Fighting to Heal,” I described my relationship with a former prizefighter who must undergo a kidney transplant. There was some concern about his ability to trust the medical establishment but the fears were allayed by the patient’s trust in me. My boxing background and familiarity with its culture helped in my solid doctor–…