In the last five days or so, I had to scramble to make sure the family cabin was insured. It’s a long boring story about the agency we’ve been using FOREVER no longer carrying the insurance company we’ve been using FOREVER. The agency could offer a replacement at FIVE TIMES THE PRICE. Yes, you read that right. And, nope.

This kind of stuff is waaaay beyond my introvert comfort level so okay, whaddo I do. On the internet, I located an agency in the area that carried the same insurance company that we’d had before. Nervous as an introvert gets when having to talk to a PERSON THEY DON’T KNOW, I clicked the “Request a quote” button. Yikes! What have I done? But then. Whoosh! K and I had our first conversation last Wednesday and TODAY we have a new insurance policy and I was able to pay it online.

Early in our conversations, she recognized my last name and asked if Doctor Finlayson was my dad. Nope. My dad was a [small-town] banker. But I have been answering this question most of my adult life. My doctor-uncle, during the active years of his career, delivered just about every baby in town, or so it would seem. He did other stuff. Like sew someone’s nose back onto their face after a snowmobile accident and deal with the aftermath of two snowmobilers who were beheaded by a wire. But most people remember him because he delivered them or their children and I think that was the part of his job he liked the most. He did not like making house calls (he did make them early in his career) and finding no food in the refrigerator…

There are people who remember my dad as a banker but mostly it is my uncle they remember. That is okay with me and it would be okay with my dad. “Don” (dad’s brother) can do whatever the hell Don wants to do is the kind of thing my dad would say. (They *were* friendly and loved each other.)

When I deal with local Sault Ste. Siberia business people who remember my name, I NEVER want any kind of special treatment because I am a Finlayson. That isn’t what my family would want. We stand on our own personal reputations. I don’t think the woman who helped me with the insurance gave me special treatment. She was a total professional and would have done what she did for my family for anyone. But knowing that we had something in common, mainly that I grew up in Sault Ste. Siberia, may have helped us find things to talk about if that makes any sense.

This entry was posted on Monday, September 15th, 2025 at 6:39 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.