All those years ago, Herman Lewis could see potential abounding in one studious Bladen County seventh grader.
“With some students, you just know,” Lewis said. “Something about his demeanor or personality told me he was going on to be something special.”
By the same token, Stephen Bridgers remembers that being in Herman Lewis’ classroom meant being under the tutelage of a steadfastly fair-minded instructor.
“He was always a nice guy,” Bridgers remembers. “As long as you did the right thing, you would get along fine in his class.”
Theirs was a memorable teacher-student relationship. Decades later, their doctor-patient relationship is just as strong.
That long-ago seventh grader is now known as Stephen Bridgers, MD. Bridgers left his hometown of Clarkton to study at East Carolina University’s Brody School of Medicine, graduating in 1985, then completing his residency at East Carolina University/Pitt County Memorial Hospital in 1988. He would eventually return home to practice family medicine, where Lewis equates him to a throwback in terms of caregiving.
“You know those old movies where the family doctor would take his horse and buggy and visit people at home?” Lewis said. “That’s what Dr. Bridgers reminds me of. With him, it’s not just quick in and quick out. He takes time to listen. He’s so personable.”
That’s the way Bridgers remembers his own family’s doctor, Julian Keith. He recalls getting shots of penicillin around Dr. Keith’s family table and fighting back tears during one particularly painful inoculation. Apparently, that hurt the good doctor even more than it hurt the youngster.
“Dr. Keith told my parents to get me out of there before I broke his heart,” Bridgers said.
Lewis, who retired as a principal after going back to school to earn a master’s in administration, is an active 81-year-old. He serves on the Elizabethtown Town Council, plays piano for Mount Sinai AME Zion Church, and does all the maintenance work for the pristine home he and his wife Charity own.
He attributes his good health in large part to his former student.
“I tell him, ‘Don’t you retire until I’m gone,’’’ Lewis said with a chuckle. “And I’m not planning on going anywhere yet.”
When Lewis first heard that Bridgers would be joining forces with Cape Fear Valley Health, he was concerned. After all, the days have passed when Lewis could have marched Bridgers to the principal’s office.
“When I found out they were going to move him, I thought, ‘Oh no, what am I going to do?’” Lewis said. “I went to check and found out otherwise.”
While Bridgers is officially a Cape Fear Valley Health provider, he’s still based in Clarkton at Bladen Medical Associates at an expanded practice that includes 12 examination rooms. And he’s still just a phone call away for Lewis and other patients.
“It’s been a really good thing,” Bridgers said. “When all this transpired, I told my wife I feel like I could kick myself for not doing this earlier.”
Bridgers and his wife Elizabeth, who is headmaster at Elizabethtown Christian Academy, raised their family in Clarkton and have established strong Bladen County roots. Dr. Bridgers’ faith and his devotion to his patients are the foundation of those roots.
“I still believe you can take time with folks,” he said. “I get it that there are schedules to keep and bills to be paid, so you shoot for a goal. But there are going to be times when some need a little more and maybe some need a little less. You pray that it all balances out. And when it doesn’t, that’s when you turn it over to the guy upstairs.”