A hopeful memoir that shares the author’s voyage of discovery as a mother, wife, and physician in underserved communities in northern Ontario.

In underserved areas of Canada, the communities themselves can be one of the strongest parts of the health care team. Dr. Gretchen Roedde shows how local communities play a major role in responding to illness, birth, and death, making each more meaningful and bearable.

In Deep Water Dream, Roedde recounts stories from her long career — from working with a Cree community in developing a medical dictionary in their own language, to training community-based health workers, to delivering Amish babies in her own home. 

Gretchen Roedde, assistant professor at the Northern Ontario School of Medicine, has been a physician in northern Ontario since 1978. Working with Aboriginal communities (Nishnawbe Aski Nation and Lake Temagami), she practices near Lake Temiskaming. She has also worked as a public health doctor in the developing world, specializing in mother and child health and HIV/AIDS. Gretchen lives in Haileybury, Ontario.