The StoryCorps Mobile Tour recently returned to Fort Myers in February and March 2024 to record meaningful conversations with people right here in Southwest Florida about their lives.
Each Monday, we’re highlighting some of the compelling stories from our fellow Southwest Florida residents.
Today’s installment has Elizabeth Loredo interviewing her husband Pierre Loredo, MD about his life.
As a child, he didn’t see much of a future for himself beyond hospitality jobs, but by daring to dream big, and not bowing to others’ expectations, he now works as a pediatrician here in Southwest Florida.
Transcript:
JOHN DAVIS, HOST: The StoryCorps Mobile Tour returned to Fort Myers earlier this year to record meaningful conversations with people right here in Southwest Florida. Each Monday, we're highlighting some of those stories. Today's installment has Elizabeth Laredo interviewing her husband, Dr Pierre Loredo about his life and daring to dream big.
ELIZABETH LOREDO: I want to start by asking you, what did you want to be when you grew up?
PIERRE LOREDO: I actually wanted to be a maid. My parents were living in a hotel. My dad was running the restaurant downstairs, and my brother and I, we were staying in the hotel. I was like, “it's way too complicated to be a manager.” Accountant has to deal with numbers. I don't know how to deal with numbers. And I saw the maid, and the maid would like, turn over the bed, and I'd be like, “I think I could do that job.” And, and I even asked her a couple times, I think I asked my parents if I could ask her, and I said, “Hey, can I like, you know, work with you?” And and then she said, “Yeah, you could come, come work with me and clean up the rooms.”
ELIZABETH: How were you at school?
PIERRE: Horrible, absolutely horrible. My parents are from Peru, South America, and then they moved over here. I was born. They both didn't speak English, so I think my dad did work first as like a dishwasher in a restaurant, and then my mom would bus tables, and then she became like a waitress. And so we really didn't have education. So, it wasn't we didn't know how to study. My mom really wasn't contacting schools. The few times the schools contacted my mom, there was the language barrier. So, in essence, there was really no trying. And so the grades were always horrible. And then when I got to high school it is even worse, because, like, there was, like, for high school, you had to have a certain number of credits to graduate. And my brother dropped out already, and I was like, “Oh, I'm gonna do what he does.” I'm gonna do what he did. You know, he's my older brother. And I think the only reason I didn't drop out was because I was too lazy.
ELIZABETH: How did we go from barely able to finish classes to being a pediatrician?
PIERRE: Yes, children doctor.
ELIZABETH: That's a really big gap to bridge.
PIERRE: Huge, huge jump, huge jump. I took one class at a community college. And the reason I took one class is because there wasn't anyone paying for it. I was paying for it. So, I'm going to get an ‘A’ because I'm paying for this and I'm going to work really hard at it because I'm paying for it, and I'm not going to take more than one class because that's just not going to work. And then, and then I would work at the hotels. So, the philosophy class was amazing. We were reading this book called “Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance.” The critical thinking thing I've never been exposed to at all but, I mean, I really loved it. I don't know what caused me to love it, but it was just like, in the past I didn't realize that I wasn't thinking. I thought I was thinking, but then this showed me, like, how to think. And in the process of how to think, I really got interested in the material and the philosophy, like Socrates, like the actual books, the Plato books on Socrates, like they'd read excerpts from it. And I was like, “This is wild! He's doing like, a Jedi mind trick,” you know? It really meant something to me to learn this stuff, and I certainly thought of the world in a different, different light after this; got turned on to learning. Did well in the in the class, got an ‘A’ in it, got into the honors program, and then I went from one to two classes. And luckily,
ELIZABETH: This is all from one to two classes.
PIERRE: It took me six years to get through a two-year community college. But during that time, crazy growth.
ELIZABETH: Where did you go after you finished up there?
PIERRE: I thought to myself, “OK, which direction am I going here?” And then the Ivy League was brought up. We had one classmate, and she said she had an uncle that went to Cornell, Ivy League. And then I said, “Why don't we go there?” And I was like, “Well, let's have Jenny apply and let's see if she gets in.” We convinced Jenny to apply there, and she actually gets in.
ELIZABETH: Well, and that's the thing, right? Isn't that what we say about like, diversity and being able to see people that look like you and have your background be able to achieve makes you feel like you can do it. Right?
PIERRE: Yeah, totally, totally, totally.
ELIZABETH: So, thank you, Jenny.
PIERRE: Yeah. Thank you, Jenny. We always owe you, Jenny.
ELIZABETH: Needless to say, graduated from Cornell. Now you have the ambition. You have that fire, and you want to be a doctor, right? Not necessarily a pediatrician, but a doctor. So, what brought you to pediatrics?
PIERRE: It was this guy, Sam Back, and it was this program called the Urban Semester Program. And this is when I was at Cornell, and a bunch of my core friends, also transfer students, into Cornell were like, “Hey, you know what? You really got to do urban semester.” You go to New York City, and it's like the greatest experience. And they just convince me. And so I met Sam Back. I had the interview. He sat down. He goes, “What do you think about shadowing a pediatrician for the nation's largest provider of health care for homeless kids?” And I go, “Yeah! Bring it on!” So, I got to do that. It was the Children's Health Fund. Love me the Children's Health Fund. I mean, I really wanted to do pediatrics after that, that experience. I was like, “This, is it. I want this way more than the maid position. A hundred times more than a rock star position.” It was a really good call.
ELIZABETH: Yeah, so if you could share anything with our children or anybody that hears this, what advice would you give them?
PIERRE: Yeah, you know, I thought about this before. There are boxes that are created. We've heard about this, like, “think outside the box” and so forth. You create the box. You make the box. You don't even realize how you're doing it. And then there's these stories that exist that we can't pinpoint, like, you have to go to high school, have amazing grades, you have to go to college immediately afterwards, and you have to know what you're going to do for the next 70 years of your life immediately. Not true at all. That's a fake book. It's basically, you got to go through these experiences, see what you like, what you don't like, and don't put restrictions on yourself.
DAVIS: That was Dr. Pierre Loredo speaking with his wife, Elizabeth. The conversation was recorded in Fort Myers through the StoryCorps Mobile Tour. This is WGCU News.
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