To the editor:

Years ago, a nurse wouldn’t allow my daughter to enroll in school until her needed dental work was done.

When the dentist told me the cost, I, then a student, inquired if I could make four payments. The dentist explained that it was hard to get gold out of a tooth once it was in.

In the next dentist’s office I asked about four payments and when I could set up possible appointment times.

The receptionist asked us to sit down and told us that my daughter was his next patient. “You will never get a bill from this office,” she informed me.

Later, I learned that she was not only a medical nurse, but the doctor’s wife, and that the dentist was the town’s mayor.

My husband, who had been sought out to be a missionary for his school, as well as a principal, shared some of his heartaches with his dentist. Thereafter, if a parent couldn’t afford the dental bill, the child was to be taken to this dentist. This made considerable sacrifice for this dentist over the years.

Today, the Heartland Medical Outreach, Health Care Access and the Douglas County Dental Clinic (perhaps there are others), are still reaching out, “to the least of these.”

Mary Siegrist,

Lawrence