I've known ice cream shops that give away freebies when they close, but never a dental surgeon.

I've had the same dentist in Dallas for about 40 years. He was so good that I waited for all but the most urgent emergency dental work until I made it back to Dallas to see him. He was/is kind, competent, never lied about the severity of anything. He made no secret of his religion (some branch of Protestant) or his political affinity (Republican Light), but never once in 40 years burdened me with any of it, and he knew perfectly well where my sentiments were to be found on the political spectrum.

He just retired, put me in the hands of his newest partner, a Ukrainian who has been in Texas for decades, and she seems perfectly competent. I don't even know how old he is, though I'd estimate between 75 and 80. My last treatment was this past week, when I needed a filling replaced/enlarged. It was a little tricky, as it was on the inside, next to another tooth, and he had to try not to hit the neighboring tooth with his drill. I needed novocain (or whatever it is they use these days), and opted for the laughing gas to distract from the pain.

His treatments were never cheap, and dental insurance always refused to pay for most of them, including preventive cleanings that I got twice a year. This time, I had received the announcement of his retirement (September 1) in advance, and while he assured me that he was still available for consulting about exotic situations that might require someone with intimate knowledge of previous treatments, this was basically it. From here on in, I would no longer be coming in for treatments performed on my teeth, but rather on my зубы (ZU-by).

From past experience, I expected an hour-long, rather intense session of drilling, scraping, instruments, work, x-rays etc to run somewhere between $700 and $1000. When we were done, and I felt up to standing up (the NO₂ can make you a little unstable on your feet at first), he thanked me for being such a good and reliable (I almost never missed an appointment, and let him know in advance if there was a need to) patient over the years, and said this treatment was on the house.

In Germany, we used to have a seasonal ice cream parlor in our town, run by a family of Italians with whom we had grown so close over the years, the "padrone" and his family called me "zio," or "uncle," and we ALL called him "zio." On the last day of the season, usually around the first of October, they would give way whatever ice cream they still had in stock, as they would just have to throw it away the next day anyway. Their premises became a shop selling cheap winter clothing from November to late March. "Zio" has been gone now for many years, and we still miss him. But that was a question of going home with $10 worth of free ice cream. A $1000 dental freebie is another category altogether. My (now former) dentist may be correctly categorized as a "WASP," but I think that at the end of the day, he is more like what my Jewish friends term a "mensch."