Bones hold the soul of home. Try to escape and the bones pull you back to your roots. Some people leave home and build a new nest far away, but the new often resembles the old in ways that provide familiarity and comfort. While we’re here we may not be aware of what we love about our East Coast home, but when we leave, the sights and sounds and smells of the past echo constantly in our memory banks. Sometimes they surface at strange times: a paving project conjures up memories of a walk on a wharf. Whooshing traffic laps and crashes like ocean waves. A seagull’s cry recalls an ache that is difficult to salve. Nothing stays buried forever.

This is the way it was for Dr. Adrienne Watson. Home for Adrienne was PEI—West Royalty and Bunbury/Stratford, to be specific. Educated in three public schools, she then earned a B.Sc. from UPEI, and moved on to Dalhousie University, where she got her MD, specializing in family medicine. She holds the distinction of being the first indigenous (Maritime) black female to graduate from Dal’s medical school. (That this was in 1998 should make us wonder why it took so long!)

Adrienne moved to London, Ont., to complete her residency requirements, remaining in southwestern Ontario to practise. The people were nice, her colleagues supportive, the practice successful—but the call of the ocean grew stronger as the days and seasons passed. She spent her spare time trying to find water. After seven years, she packed her bags and returned to the East Coast. Her older sister, also a medical doctor, followed suit and returned to this area too.

Now in private practice in Halifax, Adrienne is teaching, doing a master's degree in clinical science and working with a collegial group. She’s a happy camper. She says PEI is the only true home she has known, and she takes every opportunity to go back.