Village Squire, 1975-11, Page 19Wm. Victor Johnston
Return
of
the
native
The oft told story tells of the young man
who goes away from home, becomes rich and
famous and returns home in glory to his home
town.
William Victor Johnston is no longer
young, has never been rich and though well
known to many people hasn't been
particularly famous. Still, his return to his
home town of Lucknow is not without glory.
There were not tickertape parades when he
quietly returned from Toronto to a new
bungalow overlooking the Lucknow River last
year. He'd come home to retire after about 20
years in Toronto. Most of his life has' 'leen
spent in Lucknow area from his childh—« ' ,n
a farm in West Wawanosh township ' s
long years as a family doctor �' e
community.
Many people in his hometown remem
him as the doctor but for the younger pt ,
and for people in neighbouring communit
he's better known as a writer than as a doch
His book Before the Age of Miracles tells
what it was like to be a family doctor in the
days before modern transportation, antibiot-
ics and modern surgical practices. He
reveals, a little reluctantly, that the book has
sold some 10,000 copies in the hardcover
edition. For comparison sake a book is
considered a best seller if it sells more than
5000 copies in hardcover in Canada. The book
has been recently reissued in paperback by
Paperjacks.
The book was such a success that Dr
Johnston is in the late stages of a second book
on growing old gracefully and enjoying it. The
manuscript is presently shuffling back and
forth between the publisher Fitzhenry and
Whiteside Limited of Toronto and the writer.
The final title still hasn't been decided but the
publisher is leaning toward How Old Is Old?
If all goes well the book should appear in the
spring. Meanwhile the Doctor is worrying
that his health will hold out until the book is
finished. It hasn't been so good of late, he
confides.
Still the books have been the medicine he's
needed in his life. He began Before the Age
of Miracles about six years ago. It was
prompted by Dr. John Hamilton an old dean
of the medical school who suggested that the
kind of medicine practiced by the country
doctors before the modern advantages should
be recorded before the all doctors of that era
died. Such a book would be in demand in
years to come for teaching medical students,
he said. Dr. Johnston tried to keep this in
mind in writing the book, he said, to keep
himself out of it but the publisher insisted in
some biographical details and antecdotes.
He says now that without the book, he
wouldn't have been around today. The first
two years of his retirement in Toronto were
horrid, he remembers. Time was heavy on his
hands and he didn't have anything to turn
to. The book finally gave him something to
live for again. It took from three to four years
to finish.
The idea of coming home was both inviting
and at the same time intimidating. He
worried that the long cold winters might be
too hard but was pleasantly surprised by last
year's mild weather. He was also worried that
the people he used to know would all be dead.
Some are, he says, but many aren't and he
enjoys their company. He enjoys the clean air
of the village and in general has been quite
happy since he came home.
His earlier years in the community are well
told in Before the Age of Miracles. He began
his practice in 1924 when his village was still
relatively isolated. Cars were few and for
those that had them roads were still bad. In
winter it was back to the horse and cutter.
Travel was difficult and time consuming. The
nearest hospital of any kind was in Wingham,
12 miles away and it was small.
Antibiotics nad not come along yet
and surgical techniques were still primitive
by today's standards. Yet despite the
handicaps, Dr. Johnston became very
involved in the lives of his patients. Over the
years, he says, he became unconsciously a
person more interested in people than in their
diseases. This, he says, was opposite to his
training. As doctors he and his colleagues
were trained to think mostly of diseases, not
so much of the people who had them.
He was busy in those days, he said, but
never so busy that he couldn't take an
evening to think about the problems of his
patients. Ivpuch has changed in medicine
VILLAGE SQUIRE/NOVEMBER 1975, 17