SUMMERSIDE, P.E.I. — There are two types of Islanders, theorizes Dr. Paul Kelly.
Those who cannot wait to leave and those who cannot bear to be anywhere else.
Kelly, sitting and chatting in the office that, until earlier this year, he had shared with another physician, gestures to his friend and colleague, Dr. Cyril Moyse, sitting opposite him.
The two Summerside physicians fall into the latter category, says Kelly.
“For somebody who wants to work on the Island, to work in your home community is very satisfying – and it’s nice to give back a little bit,” he says.
Kelly and Moyse both recently retired after 48 years practicing medicine, almost all of that time in Summerside.
The men have been friends for a long time and their lives have taken similar paths. Their connection to this community is just as long.
They attended grade school here together, left long enough to graduate from Dalhousie Medical School together in 1972, and both settled back in their hometown, working most of their careers in the same clinic, Summerside Medical Centre, though Kelly also worked for a number of years downtown at the Harbourside Medical Centre.
Moyse took up his practice shortly after graduating from university. His father, Henry, had been a physician here and while Moyse had not intended on taking over his father's practice, that is what happened. He and his wife, Sharon, raised three children here.
Kelly worked for two years in rural Newfoundland and Labrador and two years in Botswana, where he met his wife, Katherine, before coming home and setting up his practice in 1978. They have two children.
“I was glad to see him. We were good friends and it was good to have him back,” recalls Moyse.
In addition to his family practice, Kelly took an interest in palliative care and devoted a lot of his time to working in and improving that field locally.
Moyse had a smaller family practice than his friend but devoted more of his time to working as one of the province’s coroners, and with the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Prince Edward Island, serving as its registrar for more than 20 years.
Kelly finished his clinical work in July. Moyse finished his in February and stepped down as registrar of the college in late November, though he is still a coroner and will continue to serve in that role until a replacement is found, which is expected to be some time in 2021.
Both men have handed their family practice patients on to new physicians.
Cindy Affleck, manager of the Summerside Medical Centre, worked with Moyse and Kelly for many years and said they are missed around centre.
“Both of them were always very good to work with. They always worked towards what was best for the clinic and for the community too.”
It is impossible to summarize nearly five decades spent in the service of a community in a few words, but both men shared some thoughts on their careers.
Moyse says he is thankful to have practiced in his hometown. Connecting and integrating into a community is something that can take time for a new doctor, but because he grew up here he recalls finding an immediate connection to his patients.
Because he was working in his father’s practice, Moyse recalls that many of those patients had been getting updates about him most of his life, so they already knew all about him before he even learned their names.
It wasn’t always happy work though, he says, but at the end of the day, it was rewarding.
“One thing that always strikes me is that … you’re also in the community and your patients are people you’re relating to. Some become friends and every time you lose one – it takes a piece of you.”
“But overall, the nature of the work, I can’t think of any other job that would be any better.”
Kelly says there is nothing he would rather have done for a career than family medicine.
“You’re making a difference in people’s lives. There are downtimes when things don’t go as well as they could have, you wonder what you could have done to make things (end) differently … but this is the kind of work that we like and the kind of work we think makes a difference to the community.”
Kelly divested himself of most of his duties before Moyse, so he is a little further ahead in the retirement adjustment phase than his colleague. He spent the summer gardening, walking the Island’s beaches and generally enjoying a slower, less stressful way of life.
Moyse though is starting to slow his pace.
He says he has no immediate plans for retirement projects – but it sounds like his friend might have some ideas for him.
“There’s a game called pickleball, which I’m going to get Cyril into when he fully retires,” says Kelly.
“Oh, you’re playing that?” Moyse asks.
“It’s a good game … and I have an extra racket,” says Kelly, giving his friend an amused, knowing look.
Colin MacLean is the municipal reporter for the Journal Pioneer.
