Thursday, September 11, 2008

Henry Ford in Belterra, continued

I had the pleasure of taking Dr. Emerick Szilagyi of the Henry Ford Hospital in Michigan back to Belterra, where he had headed up the hospital between 1942-1945. I don't remember the year we made that visit, but according to Allison Jones, it was eight years ago. Seems to me that it was longer than that, but I'll take Allison's word for it until I can figure out the dates. My friend, Ginger sent me the above link, which refers to the professional career of Dr. Szilagyi. I remember he came close to crying when he saw the old Belterra Hospital closed down and taken over by bats and other varmints. As reported earlier, his rubber tree plantation hospital had been one of the most modern in Latin America. The attached image was taken shortly before the whole structure burned down. Today there's nothing left of the place except for two imperial palms (Roystonea oleracea), which marked the entrance to the hospital. One of those has died. Perhaps both of them.

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