H I G H L A N D S C O U N T Y , F L A .

In the summer of 1987, CB, our youngest daughter, and I came

to see a little town that CB had visited previously. It was Avon Park. CB had liked

Walker Memorial Hospital, and the administrator that invited him. He finished his formalities and then we drove south.We decided to eat in a small Chinese restaurant. It was quiet inside. In two minutes after we were seated, CB asked me if I liked the town. He has never forgotten the answer I gave him: “Honey, if you are going to be happy at work, I will find ways to adjust.” That helped him to make the most important decision of our lives.

Avon Park is the smallest town I have ever lived in. After three years living on Lake Lillian, we moved to Sebring. The home we built

is a combination of homes like you find in India, Africa, and Europe. Our daughters call it home and our friends and families all around the world made sure to map it down.

CB and I have similar backgrounds, even going back as far as our birth certificates--they are signed by the same medical director.

We were born in the same hospital in the city of Kampala in Uganda, a country in East Africa. Our parents moved to Uganda for different reasons,

Kampala, Uganda - Ranjan Patel (front row, right) poses with her parents and siblings.

UGANDA

C.B. Patel, MD and Ranjan Patel

Dr. C.B. Patel

Journey Stories is part of Museum on Main Street, a collaboration between the Smithsonian Institution and State Humanities Councils nationwide. Support for Museum on Main Street has been provided by the United States Congress.

Our Journey

Finding Sebring by Ranjan Patel

H I G H L A N D S C O U N T Y , F L A .

however. CB’s father was invited by the British government to train teachers at Kampala Makerere College. He graduated from Bombay University in 1942 with mathematics and Sanskrit. This is when the British were ruling over India and Uganda. He accepted the invitation and moved to Uganda. My father was still bolder and took a sailboat with some friends and traveled the Indian Ocean to East Africa. After working for some time, he got into the business of selling bicycles and their parts. All his life that he spent there, he worked for the company called Yamato Gumi in Osaka, Japan.

Everything of that part of the world was divine – the weather, the landscape vegetation, the people, and above all, the peacefulness. In the late 1960s,

paradise fell – things changed for the worse. Riots were witnessed by all of us. Trucks full of dead people covered with banana leaves left the streets bloody. Curfews scared the daylights out of us. Dad decided that it was time to leave this paradise. CB’s father at that point had already left Kampala with his family in 1962.

In July of 1969, Dad made up his mind to go to India. The other choice was England since we all held British passports,

but Mom hated cold weather. Getting adjusted in Anand, Gujarat (India) was not easy. I still had to finish my final high school year. I started to like the school, made some friends, and enjoyed the festivals and holidays.

CB and I were enrolled in the same university. We became engaged in our final year and married in Anand the following year.

C.B. Patel, MD and Ranjan Patel

Journey Stories is part of Museum on Main Street, a collaboration between the Smithsonian Institution and State Humanities Councils nationwide. Support for Museum on Main Street has been provided by the United States Congress.

My childhood was memorable. It was spent in paradise. – Ranjan Patel

H I G H L A N D S C O U N T Y , F L A .

After CB’s internship, we decided to join his brother in London. We held a family reunion, and everybody voted that we should join the rest of the family in New York. We enjoyed our school friends in London as we worked and waited for the visas that were filed. But we were always anxious about a move to another continent.

In July 1979, we moved to Brooklyn, NY. CB’s brother, who was a fellow in cardiology, had saved him a residency in

internal medicine. This was an entirely different world of busy people. CB went to work, but I had to adjust. Then, in 1980, we were blessed with our daughter Ami. We also had CB’s father with us, so I was busy too.

After CB finished his internship and fellowship we moved to Staten Island. CB picked an academic position in the same hospital and was going to commute. He liked his job but when Ami started kindergarten I started having second thoughts of staying longer in New York. We started looking for other new opportunities in several states. CB had

licenses to practice in several states.As soon as our second daughter Ruchi was born,

we decided to move to Ocala, Fla. CB joined a cardiology practice. In a few months, we decided to have our own practice and started calling all the small hospitals in Florida.

That’s how we moved to Highlands County. It has been a great journey. Sebring is now home for

us, our daughters, extended family, and friends all over the world. We have lived and traveled on several continents, but just like winter birds, we come back to Sebring.

C.B. Patel, MD and Ranjan Patel

Indian drums, such as the tablas (front row, left) are some of the instruments found in the music room of the Patel’s Sebring home.

Journey Stories is part of Museum on Main Street, a collaboration between the Smithsonian Institution and State Humanities Councils nationwide. Support for Museum on Main Street has been provided by the United States Congress.

Sebring, Fla. - The Patel family (L-R, Ami, Ranjan, C.B., and Ruchi Patel.)