Lisa Freeman has been coming to The Dimock Center for the better part of her 52 years. As children living in the Wellington Hill area of Roxbury, she, her three sisters and her brother came to Dimock for their pediatric care. For Lisa, that tradition carried on. through most of five of her pregnancies, Dimock’s OB/GYN and Pediatric teams were the people she could count on to keep both she and her children healthy and strong.
As the children – a brood that now includes her five children and her stepson – grew, each of them enjoyed life with Dimock under the special care of their pediatrician, Dr. Nandini Sengupta, medical Director of Health Services.
Lisa and her kids took advantage of all services in the health center, from the dental clinic – which Lisa recalls as the only place her son, scared of dentists, would come with excitement – to the eye care clinic to the on-campus pharmacy. “All my kids and now my granddaughter, little Adrianna, have known Dr. Sengupta, or Dr. S., as they affectionately call her.”
“The staff, especially Nurse Sheila [Gibbons, in pediatrics], talk to us as if this is not a job. They like being there; Dimock feels like a community, like a family. My kids and I have always sensed that. And now whenever my daughter has a concern about my granddaughter, she calls them anytime and someone always gets back to her in five minutes.”
“You can’t find that kind of care anywhere else.”
Though Lisa now lives in Hyde Park and her daughter and granddaughter live in West Roxbury, they still come to Dimock for the care and services we offer.
“I’ve been going to Dimock’s campus as long as I can remember. You know, I was always there with my kids. I received WIC support for a time; today my dentist is there, my eye exams are there…I will even wait for my prescriptions at the pharmacy rather than getting them closer to my house because I like the people.”
Her life today is, as she puts it, “Crazy!” With a mix of older children and young, an aging father and now beautiful granddaughter, Lisa never stops moving. But somehow, when supper is on the table every night, all the kids seem to find their way back home. “It’s a family, you know?
That’s the great thing about Dimock, and why I will always support them. They’re like family.”