One of the happiest days for Ed Hume was when Dr. Fu-Shun Yen arrived from New Haven: the second Western-trained doctor at XiangYa. Immediately the clinical burden was halved for Dr. Ed. This began the deliberate and rapid turnover of control to Chinese medical staff. Throughout his career, Ed Hume insisted that this policy was desirable as well as inevitable. Other missions, including several in China, planned to rely on Western doctors indefinitely. Not XiangYa C the faster they could train Chinese men and women to be physicians and nurses, the better. Even in New Haven and other centers of Yale benefaction to XiangYa, there were discontented rumbles. Was this turnover too fast? But Ed and his colleagues ultimately prevailed.

Let me add a couple of China anecdotes about my parents. During the Second World War, my father, a pioneer vascular surgeon, was sent with his American hospital unit to Assam Province in northeastern India. For 22 years, Dad repaired major blood vessels for wounded Chinese and Indian soldiers, also several Japanese POWs. But his major patient load was Chinese working on the Ledo Road, the spur built hastily to bypass sections of the Burma Road captured by the Japanese. Dad came to admire the courage and good cheer of his Chinese patients, of whom he had more than any other doctor in the CBI theater. He taught himself enough Mandarin to take histories and physicals without an interpreter.

After the war, my parents discovered that their shared conversational ability in Mandarin gave them a secret channel for remarks in front of us children, and at boring dinner parties (“Why don’t we give an excuse for leaving now?” in Mandarin). When enrolling in a California public school, I was asked what languages – besides English – were spoken at home; I replied “Chinese” of course, to the interviewer’s amazement.

I close by quoting from one of Grandfather Hume=s anecdotes, at the end of Chapter 10 of ADoctors East, Doctors West.@ The scene is nervous: after two years of operation, the Yali hospital has its first patient death, a young farm boy with a terminal infection. Alone, Ed Hume is confronting the bereaved father:

Seeing me enter, he knelt down respectfully and kowtowed three times. I begged him to rise and sit with me on the ceremonial settee at the top of the room. While still standing, he said, very quietly, AI have come to thank you, sir!

I had expected an angry outburst

You have provided for my dead boy a coffin far more costly than we poor people in the country could ever have afforded. For the boy to die was the will of Heaven; but you, sir, have been a friend. I have discovered today how truly our great sage Confucius spoke when he said:

Within the four seas

All men are brothers.

I shall return to the village and tell all the people there that you are truly our friend and that we can trust you and your hospital fully.

From that day on, we had no fear of death.

Thank you.

我谨代表湘雅医院及医学院的创始人胡美博士的家人，向大家表达诚挚的问候以及祝贺。我是大卫·弗里曼，胡美博士的长外孙。我住在费城附近，这次是为了参加湘雅的百年院庆而专程来到了长沙。

我与爱德华和洛塔（我的外祖父母）很熟悉，因为在我大部分童年时光里，他们就住在纽约市，离费城只有一百英里。我了解他们的晚年时光，在这里我想要讲一些有关他们的故事。（洛塔享年百岁）

外公是一个非常快乐而且乐观向上的人，他对家人以及朋友都充满关爱。他经常给大家讲他少年时在孟买还有成年之后在长沙时发生的精彩的故事。他写过好几本书，包括一本生动的自传体回忆录《道一风同：一位美国医生的在华生涯》，于1946年由诺顿出版社出版，当时胡美七十岁。还有另一本温斯顿裴文坦博士的传记，在二战时期裴文坦博士是湘雅的英雄人物，在战争结束不久之后不幸殒命于一场空难之中，温斯顿的遗孀莫德今天也来到了现场。

爱德华·胡美写过几小卷的十四行诗，他热爱诗歌以及其它优美的文学作品，还有音乐。在他1893至1897年间在耶鲁上大学期间，他曾经认真考虑过成为一名拉丁语和希腊语的老师。爱德华对他的中国同事有着深厚的感情，对他的患者、湖南官员以及普通老百姓也是一样。当他1905年到达中国之后，他立即携家属前往庐山牯岭，花了一年时间融入此前从未接触过的汉语环境中。1906年的夏天，在我妈妈夏洛特出生不久之后，爱德华举家搬到长沙，那时他已经掌握了相当好的口语以及书面语。这对他发挥诊断治疗患者的医学职能和与施工人员、商人以及各级政府官员打交道的政治职能都是至关重要的。

除了爱德华胡美的书以外，我还要向你们推荐他的妻子洛塔的书，尤其是《Drama at the Doctor’s Gate》，是在爱德华胡美去世四年之后的1961年，在洛塔85岁高龄的时候，由雅礼协会出版的。它同样具有非常强的可读性，充满了在长沙生活时的奇闻轶事，从1906年起一直记录到1927年爱德华的主要领导任务终止。

爱德华·胡美最开心的一天就是颜福庆博士从纽黑文归来的那一天，湘雅终于有了第二个西医。爱德华医生的临床负担立刻减轻了一半。权力向中国医务人员的转交由此有计划而迅速地开始了。在他的整个职业生涯之中，爱德华胡美都坚持认为这项政策是合理且无可避免的。但其它的任务，包括中国的一些，都打算无限期地依赖西方医生。湘雅能越快的培养出自己的医生和护士，就能取得越好的成果。但即使是在纽黑文和耶鲁其他对湘雅的援助中心里，也还是有不满的声音。这次转交会不会太快了？最终事实证明爱德华和他的同事们是正确的。

让我再来聊聊我父母在中国的一些小趣事吧。第二次世界大战期间，我的父亲，一名血管外科的先驱医生，和他的美国医疗团队一起被派到了印度东北的阿萨姆省。在接下来的22年里，父亲为受伤的中国和印度军人修复主血管，也还包括一些日本战俘。但他主要收治的患者还是工作在雷多公路上的中国人，而这条公路就是为了绕过被日本人占据的滇缅公路匆忙修建的。父亲钦佩这些中国人的勇气和积极，这份钦佩甚至胜过了中缅印战区的所有医生。所以他开始自学普通话，来独立地询问病史和进行体格检查，而不需要翻译。

在战争后，我父母发现，有了普通话，他们可以在我们孩子面前或者无聊的晚宴上谈论一些话题而不用被人知道（像用普通话说“为什么我们不找个理由离开呢？”）。在加州公立学校入学注册时，我被问到，除了英文，平常还在家里说什么语言。当我回答“中文”的时候，考官也着实惊愕。

我将引用《道一风同：一位美国医生的在华生涯》第十章里我外祖父胡美的一则故事来结束今天的讲话。当时的场面是很紧张的：雅礼医院的第一例死亡比例——在术后两年，一个年轻的终期感染的乡村男孩。胡美先生独自一人面对着在丧子之痛中的父亲：看见我进来了，他谦卑地跪下，磕了三个头。我求他起来，和我一起坐到房间那头的长椅上去。还是站着的时候，他，特别平静地说了一句：“医生，我是来谢谢你的。”

我以为会是一场充满愤怒的情绪爆发“您给了我那死去的儿子一副棺材，这是我们这些穷人负担不起的。让我那可怜的孩子死是天意，但您，我亲爱的医生，是一位朋友，一位特别的朋友。我直到今天才发现，我们孔子说的那句‘四海之内皆兄弟’是多么正确了。”

“我会回到村里，告诉所有人，您是我们的真朋友，我们能够完完全全地信任您和您的医院”

从那天起，我们不再惧怕死亡。

谢谢大家。