This man started even later than you, he will finish residency when he is aged 65.
http://www.masslive.com/printer/printer.ssf?/base/living-1/1085557953300913.xml
http://www.valuemd.com/121145-post1.html
Living a big adventure
Thursday, May 27, 2004
By KATHLEEN E. MOORE
[email protected]
If it weren't for an advertisement he found in the American Dental Association Journal, Ronald S. Rusiecki of Chicopee isn't sure how he'd have spent his retirement.
A licensed dentist and successful businessman, Rusiecki might have eased himself into a happy retirement, spending time with his five grandchildren while putting in two days a week at his son Timothy's dental practice in Chicopee.
His other four children had happily flown the nest. The eldest, Stephen, 37 had an established career in the army, Thaddeus, 33, was a dentist practicing in West Virginia, Tina, 30, was making her way as an actress in California, and Anthony, 27, was running a local construction company.
The elder Rusiecki finally had some time to relax with his wife of 38 years, Mary.
Life was good.
But there was that ad. It tugged at his imagination. It could not be ignored.
"It said they were looking for dentists to provide dental services for an island in conjunction with getting a medical education," said Rusiecki, 62. "I thought that sounded pretty neat."
The ad was for a new medical school, Medical University of the Americas, located on the islands of St. Kitts, Nevis and Saba in the eastern Caribbean. It offered prospective students a chance to live in paradise while studying like hell.
After completing five semesters of science-oriented curriculum on campus, students would spend another 72 weeks in clinical rotation at medical facilities in the United States, Europe and the West Indies.
Nine months later, the Rusieckis were on a plane headed for the tiny island of Saba.
"We sold everything in Longmeadow and bought a house in Chicopee to hold our furniture," said Ronald, a native of that city.
Four years later, on May 22, 2004, the couple traveled to Mechanics Hall in Worcester where Ronald S. Rusiecki received a medical degree from the Medical University of the Americas. In June, the couple will move to an apartment in Hartford so Ronald can begin a residency at the University of Connecticut Internal Medicine Program.
Three years from now, when he is 65, Rusiecki will be ready to begin the next chapter in his life - bringing medical care to low-income people as a licensed physician. This time, he thinks he'll stay within the continental United States, practicing medicine either in New England or in the South.
"The community and God have been quite good to us and I really enjoy working with the disadvantaged," he said. "And the practice of medicine is less physically taxing than dentistry."
A 1959 graduate of Chicopee High School, Rusiecki earned an undergraduate degree at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst before receiving his dental degree from Georgetown University in 1967. For years, the couple went the traditional route, raising their five children
in Ware and then Longmeadow, while he established a private dental career.
Life was good.
Then an associate suggested he consider buying a dental practice that was run in the Holyoke Mall. Rusiecki knew that mainstream dentistry frowned on the mall-based clinics, but he didn't pay it much heed.
"I thought it was the logical next step - bringing dentistry to a segment that did no have a regular dentist and making it affordable," he said. "It took off like wildfire."
Rusiecki went on to set up practices in the Fairfield Mall, Albany, Cape Cod and Plymouth. The couple collaborated on the business end of the endeavor, allowing Ronald some time to practice dentistry. After awhile, though, he found he was becoming somewhat redundant.
"He had a lot of good doctors working for him," said his wife, Mary.
"Yeah, that's how the practice took off, and after awhile, you find that the only thing you are doing is meddling, so you've got to back off," said Rusiecki, with a good-natured laugh.
Slowly, the couple began to divest themselves of the clinics, which continue to flourish under the direction of other dentists. Rusiecki established a relaxed work schedule, putting in two to three days a week at the Fairfield clinic. He enjoyed working alongside his son in a practice they'd built together.
"And I might have continued doing that, too," he said. "I really didn't have a plan."
Adding medical school to their retirement hasn't put any wrinkles in the Rusieckis' brows.
The couple talk excitedly about the monkeys that swung in the trees outside their windows, the goats that made their way through the couple's front yard each day, and the sunsets that captivated them each day.
"I'm a beach bum," said Mary. "As long as he was happy, I'm fine. I just need some books and a beach and I'm set."
While his wife hit the books on the white sands of St. Kitts, Ronald entered the science labs, taking courses from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. each day. Every three weeks, he had a full day of testing.
"We would usually hit the Four Seasons (resort) in St. Kitts the weekend before an exam," he said. "It was air conditioned and they were great to us."
On occasion, the children would visit, staying long enough to enjoy the islands' less hurried pace but not so long that they suffered its shortcomings.
And there were shortcomings.
For all of their natural beauty, the islands of St. Kitts and Nevis are poor. Food had to be imported from Europe or Miami, making a fresh tomato or a crisp carrot a rarity. The electrical system was prone to failure (often during exams), and drinking water had to be collected from century-old cisterns. Water shortages were the norm.
But these hardships seem only to have added piquancy to the couple's experience. They laugh about the rough spots.
"The cows and bulls were loose everywhere," said Rusiecki. "I don't think anyone every got hurt, but they were big - 2,000 or 3,000 pounds - so when you saw them on the road, you let them cross first."
"When you showered, you had to get wet, turn it off, soap up, and then go back to wash it off," Mary said.
After Ronald finished his classroom training, the couple moved back to the States, where Rusiecki completed clinical rotations in Kentucky, Louisiana, West Virginia and North Carolina. Last year, Ronald finished up his rotation at Noble Hospital in Westfield.
Ronald had six interviews for residency placement before he was accepted at the University of Connecticut. Some of them, he thinks, were merely out of curiosity. After all, his resume was not that of a 30-year-old intern. People were curious what a 62-year-old resident looked like. Rusiecki was focused on getting beyond that.
And he did.
"When I met the Dean of the Medical School (at the University of Connecticut), it was not like an interview, really. It was more like we were commiserating about our life experiences," he said. "Afterwards, he said even if I didn't match there, he'd like to keep in touch."
People who know the Rusieckis shake their heads and smile at the couple's ingenuity and mutual dedication. Paired after they met on a blind date 42 years ago, they have approached their entire lives like a big adventure. Even now, they don't know what's next - and they're ready for it.
"You go through different stages in your life," Mary said. "You are married, and you have children, and then you aspire for a picket fence and a nice house. But then you find you can't sit there. Neither of us came from affluent homes, so we appreciated everything that life has provided for us."
friend, if you don't mind it don't matter 
