Tom: Father's Sanitorium


Figure 1.--Here is an aerial view of the sanitorium with the surrounding grounds. Note the gardens. 

The hospital my father directed, used to be an old hotel that was converted into a sanatorium. It was above the small farmers-village with a commanding view over the Rhone-valley and the Alps. The village was very small and the inhabitants were all poor mountain-farmers. While my father was in charge of the hospital, he also treated the local villagers and made frequent house-calls. As these farmes did not have much cash, they paid us with produce from their farms, such as cheese, sausage, vegetables, wine etc. That is how I got the wine cask for my play house. Most of the employees came from the German speeking part of Switzerland and were protestant. Part of the hospital was an extensive farming and workshop area. There was a chicken-farm with more then 2,000 chickens. There was a carpenter shop, a forgery, a weaving shop, a leathercraft shop etc. Some of the patients at the hospital during their treatment worked in some of these shops or the farm, depending on their degree of ilness and were thus able to earn some money to go for their living expenses. The products producesd were sold commercially and the patients received part of the income. My mother, who was a professional weaver and very artistic, ran a die weaving shop. There were a number of children at the Sanatorium. Like my father, some of the dtaff had children. Also some of the patients had children. In some cases the family came to stay to help look after the patients. Depending on the circumstances, my prents took children into our home to look after.

Sources

Voute, Tom. E-mail message, May 16, 2006.






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Created: 9:40 PM 5/16/2006
Last updated: 11:14 PM 4/9/2012