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staphylococcus or streptococcus bacteria. The treat- ment was a synthetic penicillin intravenously. When I told the mother and her daughter that the treatment was intravenous penicillin, the daughter started cry- ing and said she was very allergic to penicillin. I told them that I could handle the allergy, but the penicillin was critical to her surviving this. Mrs. X told me, “Dr. Bolton, I trust you, go ahead with the treatment”. She had the intravenous penicillin and had no reac- tion. She made a complete recovery. Without read- ing medical journals during my practice years, I probably would have missed the diagnosis in this pa- tient. Reading today is still a passion for Dr. Bolton, by his own admission, and that of his wife Sandra. “I like to read. When I was in practice (medicine) full time, I didn’t have a chance to read as much as I would like. I told myself, that, if and when I retired, I was going to make time to read,” he stated about his love for reading. “I’ve never thought of myself as a speed reader, but I have this ability to be reading a sentence, and be- fore I get to the end of it, I can almost always know how it will end. I can also read those paragraphs with the scramble letters on the words like they are normal.” Research by this author found the name for Dr. Bolton’s reading ability. Typoglycemia is the ability to read a paragraph despite the jumbled words. “He will sit in his chair for hours and read, sometimes late into the night. There are days, he will read for eighteen hours,’ his wife Sandra shared with her beautiful, glowing smile. “He will start his day reading, even before a cup of coffee or anything, he reads.” In 2006, Dr. Bolton decided to retire from his active medical when his wife at that time, Wanda, became terminally ill, and she needed someone to be with her twenty-four hours a day. About nine months later, Dr. Bolton received call from Jameye Hickman, the executive director of Manna Ministries in Picayune. “Jameye told me that Dr. Prassad was leaving the clinic and she wanted to inquire to see if would be- come the Medical Director of Manna. I told her I couldn’t do that because Wanda needed my atten- tion right now, and that’s how our conversation ended. The next day, Jameye called me again and asked if I would consider taking the role at Manna if she could send one of her volunteers to come to be with Wanda,” he explained. Dr. Bolton began his volunteer work at Manna pro- viding his expertise to the clinic three days a week. “It was my salvation at the time. I was really missing practicing medicine and seeing patients. In fact, it is still my salvation to this day,” Dr. Bolton shared. When he started at Manna, the clinic was located on Stafford Road. “We didn’t have any air conditioning or heat. It was just a large room with half walls. You could hear everything going on in the next exam room. But it was a great experience, and I really enjoyed it.” After Hurricane Katrina, the clinic received a grant from the state of Mississippi for approximately $800,000.00, which was enough to build the foun- dation and the shell of a building at the current loca- tion at 120 Street A, which is adjacent to the Picayune Industrial Park on Martin Luther King Blvd. www.southernsenior.info 21