Ann Fam Med. 2025 Sep 22. 23(5): 470-471
This narrative explores my experience as a family doctor deeply embedded in a rural community comprising 9 villages. The regional cemetery, a symbol of mortality, serves as a focal point for meditations on what it means to bear witness as a family doctor, depicting some of the joys and sorrows I have witnessed over the last quarter of a century serving this community. Grounded in the philosophy of "to cure-sometimes, to relieve-often, and to comfort-always," I underscore the importance of presence and compassion in family medicine, ultimately embracing mortality as a shared human journey that shapes both patients and their caregivers.
Keywords: bearing witness; bioethics; community/public health; family life; primary care issues: clinician-patient communication/relationship; primary care issues: continuity of care