Contributed by Daniel Brewster

Nathan Roth started out as a mentor, but soon became a great friend and colleague. Despite only knowing him for 15 months he had a profound impact on my life and the more I got to know him the more remarkable of a person I realized he was.

I first had the pleasure of meeting Nate through an email before I had actually moved out to Ontario. I did medical school in Alberta and received an email from Nate shortly after being accepted into the KW residency program. He introduced himself and informed me that he would be willing to show me around the clinic and tell me a little about KW. I took him up on the offer and still remember that first encounter like it was yesterday. We met at Balzac’s, where he bought me a coffee and sat and discussed what residency was like and what my future would entail. He then showed me around the office/clinic before having to get back to work. That Nate was willing to do this before clinic just showed he was always to take time out of his day to help others.

As I started residency we would occasionally be in the clinic together and we realized that we both had a lot in common. We were both athletic and enjoyed playing golf and volleyball. This led me to playing on the volleyball team with Nate and a few of the other second year residents, which made me feel more welcome to the KW program. Nate was the strongest on the team and always showed up every game with a great performance.

During one of the volleyball games Nate had a small seizure. Despite recovering from it quickly and the other residents in his year not being too concerned I suspected he had a medical condition. It was shortly thereafter that he disclosed to me in an email his condition, since we were going to be working together more and that he was going to be receiving some more treatments. With all of this going on, Nate took every day in stride and never let it affect his work. He would stay until every last patient was seen and always asked Dr. Lee if there was anything else that needed to be done before heading out at the end of the day.

Fortunately, our relationship grew from being colleagues to being great friends. My wife and I had the pleasure of spending time with Nate and Kristy and one of my fondest memories will be our last golf outing. Dr. Lee, our preceptor invited us out for a round of golf followed by dinner with our spouses. The golf round was so enjoyable. The weather was perfect and we had a great time socializing. The dinner was also great and the 6 of us ended up staying until the staff started cleaning up, patiently waiting for us to leave. It felt as though this would be one of many memorable nights to come.

Nate will not just be missed but remembered as an example of how one should live life. Barb and I are truly grateful for having gotten to know Nate, if even for just a short period of time.