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You know the old saying, "Those that study together, stay together and eventually get married?" OK,so maybe that's not an old saying, but if Gurney and Marina Pearsall have anything to do with it, it will be.
The Pearsalls met at the University of Chicago while taking a very intense medical course. At the time, Marina was a political refugee from Russia who had only been in the country for a few months. She was a Ph. D. and had been a practicing cardiologist in Russia for six years before coming to America with only $95 in her pocket and the clothes on her back.
"We had to leave everything behind, you were not allowed to take anything with you," remembers Marina, who also had a young daughter at the time, who is now grown. "It was such a difficult time. I left a really good job and good career to come here to the U.S. because, as a Jewish person, it was very difficult for me in Russia."
Marina had tried to leave the country for 10 years before her chance finally came through. When she arrived on U.S. soil, she was in for a long road ahead. Not only did she have to acclimate herself to the American way of practicing medicine, but she had to master the English language, too.
"At the time, my English was not very good at all," Marina said. "It was very frustrating."
On the other hand, things were very different for Gurney. A second year medical student at the time, Gurney had taken the course by mistake. Sure it was the right class, but at the wrong university.
"My classmates and I went to Chicago to study for our medical board exams," remembers Gurney, a graduate of Houston's Strake Jesuit High School, Southern Methodist University and Baylor College of Medicine. "They went further north for the class and I went to the University of Chicago by mistake, but I figured I'd stay there and take the course."
Little did he know that in the midst of confusion and what was to be one of the most difficult courses in his life would be the woman he'd fall in love with and eventually marry.
"I asked Marina to be my study partner because she seemed to be the only one who was really serious," Gurney said.
"I don't know about that," said Marina, who back then couldn't understand why anyone would want to study with her, a Russian refugee who spoke very little English. "I was very appreciative of him wanting to study with me, but I always wondered why he would even do that because my English was very bad and that really slowed us down."
Marina, unaccustomed to American courting rituals, may have been a bit bewildered, but Gurney wasn't. He knew exactly what he was doing.
"There was something about her," Gurney said. "She would look into you, not just at you. She was captivating."
Not long after, the two began dating, but with their extremely different backgrounds, no one -- especially Marina -- thought that they'd develop a serious relationship.
"A lot of people told us we couldn't have a serious relationship because we were so different and came from different backgrounds," Marina said. "We had no knowledge of each other's backgrounds. I would always tell Gurney that he couldn't even understand me because I had this long history of fighting with my government in trying to leave the country. But he would tell me that he could understand, just tell him. So we grew to be so close, because no one understood me like he did."
Today, the Pearsalls, both doctors now, have their own practice on the 16th floor of Twelve Oaks Medical Tower on the Southwest Freeway. Together, they run the Longevity Centre of Houston, which provides advanced treatments in anti-aging and skin care.
Anti-aging medicine is a medical specialty founded on the application of advanced scientific and medical technologies for the early detection, prevention, treatment and reversal of age-related dysfunction, disorders and diseases. Results are achieved through diet and exercise, nutritional supplementation and hormone modulation.
"Most doctors we know say there's no way they could work with their spouse," Gurney said. "But it works for us. In fact, the only tough times we have are when we're apart."
Those tough times came recently when Gurney, a major in the U.S. Army Reserve, was shipped to an undisclosed location for a four-month tour with the 5501st Army Hospital.
"It was tough with him gone," Marina said. "It was especially tough for our 10-year-old and 1-year-old sons, but we communicated every day with the e-mails."
Now that he's back in the swing of things at home, Gurney and his wife Marina are back to making beautiful medical miracles again, together.
"God creates souls in pairs, so everybody has a soul mate," Gurney said. "Marina is my soul mate."
"And we work well together, too," Marina said.
By MAURICE BOBB
Copyright 2003 Houston Chronicle |
