Thursday, March 2, 2000

Poor man's pharmacist remembered

AS a child, Ron Garza often suffered from upper respiratory infections and colic, so much so that neighborhood pharmacist Carlos A. Oliveira became a trusted member of the family, often making prescription deliveries himself.
   "I used to hear my grandmother talking to him over the phone," Garza recalls. "She'd tell him my symptoms and he'd tell her not to worry. And I mean that day, he would have the medicine delivered."
   It wasn't until Garza was 8 that he met the man who had for years filled his prescriptions.
   "It was right around that age of understanding that I started accompanying my grandmother to the drug store and that's when I first noticed the man behind the counter who was dispensing the medicine that was making me feel better. I was in complete awe of him."
   So profound was the impression that years later memories of Oliveira came flooding back when Garza, then a 13-year-old student at Wynn Seale, ventured into a drugstore across the street from his school to buy a candy bar. It was a moment of sweet epiphany.
   "When I walked in, the smell and atmosphere of it hit me all at once and I knew," said Garza, who decided then and there that he would one day become a pharmacist like Oliveira.
   On Saturday, Garza, a pharmacist of 15 years, along with 150 friends and family members gathered for a local memorial service in honor of Oliveira, who recently died in Florida after suffering eight years with Alzheimer's. Oliveira moved to Florida in 1988 to be with his children after having been a local pharmacist for 41 years.
   'The poor man's pharmacist'
   "He was the poor man's pharmacist," said Oliveira's brother, Crescencio "C.G." Oliveira, a local retired dentist. "In those days, those who couldn't afford a doctor for things like colds, flu, sore throats and arthritis would call on Carlos. And those who couldn't pay would still get what they needed."
   Oliveira was mentor to many pharmacists, including Joe R. DeLeon, the man who would become his longtime friend and business partner.
   "Customers seriously trusted Carlos," said DeLeon, owner of DeLeon's Clinic Pharmacy, where Garza has worked for five years.
   Compassion, selflessness
   It is that compassionate, selfless individual Garza hopes to emulate. Five years ago, Garza got an unexpected opportunity to express those sentiments when Oliveira, in town for a visit, dropped by the pharmacy.
   Garza didn't know that DeLeon and Oliveira were friends, nor did DeLeon know that Oliveira had inspired Garza's career. When DeLeon introduced his friend from Florida, Garza realized that Oliveira was the pharmacist of his youth.
   "How can I speak well of this man? By saying that I don't know if I'll ever measure up to the caliber of this man, but I'd like to be remembered as one who gave more than he took and that is something I absolutely learned from Carlos Oliveira."
  
  
 

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  © 2000 Corpus Christi Caller Times, a Scripps Howard newspaper. All rights reserved.