write on the river

2022 Writers’ Contest

There is still time to submit to the 2022 Writers’ Contest. Six winners will be awarded a total of $1,200 in cash prizes for short fiction or nonfiction (maximum 1,000 words), on any theme or topic. For competition guidelines and to submit your work visit the Write On The River website - www.writeontheriver.org. Deadline is April 1, 2022.

INTERVIEW WITH A WRITER: DR. JOHN GALLANIS

By Holly Thorpe

Write on the River interviewed Dr. John Gallanis, a nonfiction writer and retired doctor who placed in the writers’ contest in 2018, 2019 and 2020. Gallanis shares stories from over 40 years in the medical profession.

Current project

“Currently, I am compiling a collection of ‘doctor stories’ into what may become a book. But I want it to be more than an anthology and perhaps even more like a memoir: a doctor’s perception of patients’ response to illness taken over several decades,” Gallanis said. “They’re good standalone stories, and collectively they can represent the power of positive thinking, but I’m looking for some kind of moral…I’ve been doing this now for two years. I’d like it to mean something.”

Gallanis practiced medicine for four decades, in both urgent care and family medicine. He cared for thousands of patients during his practice.

In family medicine, Gallanis cared for and said goodbye to many patients. He had a standing order to have the hospital call him when a patient was about to die. He said he got the chance to ask many of them the same question right before they died: ““What did you learn? What was it all about?”

“They all said the same thing: it’s not about the money, it’s not about the power, it’s about the love you have with other people,” he said. “They don’t bullshit you when they’re dying.”

That message, along with stories of human perseverance and resiliency are what he wants to share in his book.

“It’s not for me, it’s for them. I want to give people their message. I’m not look-

ing to sell books, I’m looking to memorialize a message that was given to me by thousands of patients… their message is important to me, but it’s not my message, it’s their message.”

Collecting patient stories

“While I was practicing, I would take notes of interactions during the past days on weekends. Usually, in some quiet place and typically in my cabin in the Mt. Baker National Forest, but also at the Japanese Garden in the Seattle Arboretum,” he said. “During those times I could ask my ‘higher power’ what it was I was supposed to learn from these experiences. The reply was always the same: ‘just wait.’ ”

Writing in retirement, Gallanis is sorting through those notes and fi les and supplementing them with new research. Online, Gallanis is able to fi nd death certifi cates of past patients — some of them bearing his signature. He also can fi nd old obituaries for past patients. He uses these to help remember patients and learn more about them.

“My one regret is that I took care of these patients when they got sick, I knew their name and their state of health, but I didn’t know what they’d accomplished,” Gallanis said. “You don’t have time when they’re sick… but now I have the time to go back.”

He has discovered that some of his patients were renowned artists and architects and that others had survived death camps in Poland.

“The obituaries bring me peace,” he said. “They don’t scare me or make me sad at all, though I cry sometimes when I see them because I miss them. But I do think we’ll see each other again. That’s why I have the invitation list.”

The invitation list is a running list of 300 names that Gallanis has compiled of deceased past patients whose stories he wants to share.

“These are the people I’m going to invite to my big party when it’s my time to go,” Gallanis said. “I loved every one of them. I had a wonderful practice. Every night I said my prayers thanking God for the privilege of taking care of them.”

On writing

Shortly after Gallanis and his wife Terri moved to the area in 2016, Terri read about the Write on the River competition and suggested he submit a story.

“My wife really did hound me about it, she nagged and nagged and nagged, ‘You’ve been talking about writing, why don’t you submit something for Write on the River?” He said. “When Susan called me [about being a fi nalist], I was just beyond myself. I thought, maybe there is something to this writing. I enjoy doing it, I enjoy rehashing the stories.”

Since then, the Senior Center Writers’ Group and WOTR have provided ongoing support for Gallanis as he continues to write. He has used critiques from the writing contests to improve his writing and said he has learned from the guest speakers that WOTR and the library host. The Four Minutes of Fame open mic was another big motivator for Gallanis to share his work with others.

“I’m less stressed trying to take care of someone having a heart attack with medics on the way to the offi ce than I am standing in front of people telling my stories,” he said.

After this book is done, Gallanis said he may write about his time fl ying airplanes - including fl ying into a Thunderbirds airshow by accident and losing an engine and nearly crashing. Or, he said, he might tell some stories about his time big game hunting.

“I’m not a very good hunter, but I used to go big game hunting and there are some hilarious stories about that,” he said. “I might branch out and try and do other stories behind doctor stories done.”

To learn more about Write on the River, become a member, or register for events, visit writeontheriver.org. Membership is $35 per year, and off ers free or discounted access to all WOTR events. Questions? Contact info@writeontheriver. org.