Book excerpt: Patients bring many bits and pieces to their doctors' visits. Health issues. Things they've noticed. Worries about specific symptoms. Concerns that need reassurance. They also bring their personal stories though in the present high-tech assessment of patients' health, these are easily missed, and we are all the less for that loss today. Yesterday's doctors had the time to visit with their patients. We took delight in hearing what had been special in our patients' lives. We learned about the particular events that made some patients so different from any others, made them what they are. Some intrigued us. Some charmed us. Some amused us. Some worried us. And some scared the pants off us. None bored us. Such personal knowledge of our patients helped to make us see them as individuals. Indeed, patients might be surprised to find how much we recall of those times they came to see us. This book, a collection of stories from patients' lives, may show we remember them fondly.