The people who care for your child every day. The people who care for your child when they’re sick. These are the people that you want to have the most confidence in.
For many decades, Jeffrey and Wendy Boxer of Peterborough were those people.
Jeff Boxer has been a pediatrician at Monadnock Community Hospital since 1979, delighting children with oddly-patterned socks under sandals and finding farm animals in their ears. His wife, Wendy Boxer, co-founded The Place to Go in Peterborough in 1990 to provide free after-school care to children, a program she helped run as assistant director until it shut down last year.
After decades of serving the children of the region, the couple will be moving out of state next month, to be closer to their grandchildren.
“It was a hard decision to make,” Jeff said during a recent interview at Monadnock Community Hospital. “I thought I would finish my career here. My wife and I are still looking at each other, asking why we’re moving.”
It’s a bittersweet time, agreed Wendy, but one of their adult children has recently moved out of state, and with the Place to Go ending, it seemed a good time for both of them to make a move slightly south to be closer to their other child and grandchildren.
But they’ll be hard to replace in the memories of the people who relied on them the most.
Jeff was the pediatrician to all three of Sheila Bergeron of Jaffrey’s adopted children, but he had a special relationship with her son, Jacob, who was adopted from Guatemala at 2 years old, and had spinal muscular atrophy as well as other undiagnosed health conditions.
There were times that Jacob was unable to get to the hospital, and Jeff would come to them, recalled Bergeron. The Bergerons relied on Jeff’s opinion even when Jacob was evaluated by other doctors, a trust that Bergeron said saved her son at least one unnecessary surgery. And though Jeff is a pediatrician, he agreed to keep her son as a patient until his death at 23.
“It meant the world to us to have that consistent person looking at his health,” said Bergeron. “I can’t tell you how much that meant. It was just so wonderful to know that we could call him and he would listen to us.”
For even those that had healthy children, there was something special about Jeff, said Ellen Bingham, of Rindge, whose oldest daughter was one of Jeff’s first patients after he started at Monadnock in 1979.
“Docca Bocca,” as her girls liked to call him, wasn’t ever part of a dreaded doctor’s visit.
“They loved him,” said Bingham. “They never had any problem going to the doctor, because they loved him.”
It’s Jeff’s utter devotion to the job that creates this feeling.
“The way I approach pediatrics,” said Jeff, “it’s not just a job. It’s a lifestyle. Luckily, I’ve had the most wonderful wife in the world, who has allowed me to practice the way I practice.”
His dedication to his practice and patients has made Jeff a role model for the hospital, said MCH CEO and President Cynthia McGuire. “Dr. Jeff Boxer has one of the finest reputations in the state of New Hampshire. We are grateful for his 37 years of selfless service to his patients and wish his family the very best in this new chapter of life,” she said.
But Jeff said he doesn’t set out to be a role model. It’s all about the golden rule. That’s what life is all about,” said Jeff. “Treat people like you would like to be treated. I don’t strive to be someone’s idol. I just do what I think is right.”
As much as Jeff credits his wife, Wendy credits him right back.
“Jeff has been such an inspiration to me all these years. His dedication to his patients is truly amazing,” said Wendy. “People have been so grateful for his extras – taking the time to write a handwritten note to a child who has finally stopped sucking his thumb, or used the potty for the first time or conquered a battle with weight.”
Jeff had already been in place as a doctor at MCH for over a decade when Wendy decided, along with Ted Barker and Dave Blanchette, to start the Place to Go – which at the time was a drop-in center, and not the after-school program it eventually grew to be.
Wendy, who holds a master’s in special education, had her own young children at the time, and as she looked around Peterborough, she noticed something.
“There was no place for kids to go,” she said.
So, she gave them a place.
The Place to Go was designed to be as close to a home environment as possible, said Wendy, and that showed in the way kids connected to the program as a safe space.
Wendy recalled one day when a recent graduate from the program stopped by because she had accidently gotten locked out of her house and couldn’t contact her mother. The first place she thought to go for help was her former after-school program.
“It’s been a safe haven for a lot of kids,” said Wendy. “And a huge part of their childhood.”
The Boxers will depart on Oct. 6 for Lewes, Deleware, where Jeff will continue to practice pediatrics.
“My grandchildren are calling,” said Jeff, of his two grandchildren that reside nearby their new home in Maryland with his son and daughter-in-law.
The hospital will be hosting a reception for Jeff tomorrow, 11:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. in Conference Room 5 in the Parmelee Building. Former and current patients are welcome to attend.