By Lori Ehde
On a recent stormy morning, Dr. Darrel Siebert looked out his bedroom window, saw a blizzard howling outside and decided to go back to bed for awhile.
He's still getting used to the idea that retirement has afforded him that luxury. "Right now I still feel like I'm on vacation," Siebert said from his home Tuesday.
Lounging in his sweat pants with the TV remote control nearby, he's the picture of retirement.
So far he doesn't miss work. He doesn't miss 12-hour work days, Sunday morning hospital rotations and taking his turn on call.
"The fact that you know you don't have to be available is such a relief," he said. "It weighs on you without you even realizing it. Our home life has changed drastically."
His wife, Eleanor, who retired from nursing three years ago, has been looking forward to this day. "It's great to have him home," she said.
The couple started easing into his retirement three years ago when he dropped out of the on-call schedule. "I can't believe how much more he was home when he stopped taking call," Eleanor said.
His last day seeing patients was Friday, Dec. 8, and the clinic and hospital hosted an open house retirement party for him Dec. 10. About 250 people stopped that day to wish him well, and Siebert said he will miss the daily contact with patients.
"It's a real reward to make a diagnosis," he said. "I'm not going to say I always did the right thing, but you do the best that you can at the time.... Trying to help people - that's what medicine is all about. Every day is a challenge."
Many of his patients won't forget the role he played in their lives. Since announcing his retirement, Siebert has accumulated a sizeable pile of cards and letters wishing him well.
One 10-year-old girl wrote, "Dear Dr. Siebert, thank you for making me well when I'm sick. I would always be sick if it wasn't for you. Thank you."
In 35 years, Siebert said patient care has improved with advances in modern medicine. "We have a lot more resources today," he said.
For example, when he started there were no heart monitors, and doctors had to only guess how serious a heart condition was.
Tools like ultrasound machines weren't used until about 15 years ago, and many of the medicines he prescribed in 1965 have been replaced with more effective solutions.
His job has gotten easier, too, considering he used to make house calls as far away as Kenneth and Ellsworth. "Those were the days..." Siebert said, rolling his eyes.
He stopped delivering babies several years ago, and toward last, his practice focused more on elderly patients.
"That tends to happen," Siebert said. "You start out with young families and your families grow up with you, and you end up with geriatrics."
As much as he's enjoying his new-found freedom, Siebert said he will miss his coworkers, who have become his close friends through the years.
"It's been 35 years. It's done. It's time to go on to something else," he said.
Now, he and Eleanor are just looking forward to Christmas with their family - their three children and four grandchildren.
Their son, Alan, lives in Fairmont and has two teen-age children. Ann lives in Seattle, Wash., and has two preschool children, and Amy lives in Lincoln, Neb.
In addition to spending more time with children and grandchildren, the Sieberts are planning frequent golf and fishing trips and a trip to Alaska next year.
"I've been telling people I'm going to turn a page and it's a new chapter. The sad thing is it's the last chapter, but I'm going to make the chapter as long and interesting as I can," he said.