IN MEMORIAM:
Marie Galdini, MD
September 22, 1956 – May 19,2017
One of the pleasures of publishing Hampton Roads Physician over the past four years is the opportunity it has given us to highlight physicians who regularly volunteer their time and talent to individuals and causes in their communities, in the Commonwealth, in the nation and the world – and who do so quietly, without fanfare and often without recognition or acknowledgement of any kind. This month, it is much less a pleasure and much more an honor to feature Dr. Angela Marie Galdini.
Angie Galdini died unexpectedly on May 19th of this year. She was a brilliant, skilled, and widely respected physician, with specialty certification in both family practice and geriatrics. She earned her A.B. from Franklin and Marshall College and her medical degree from Thomas Jefferson University. She trained as an intern in Cooperstown, New York, and as a resident at the Blackstone Family Practice Center with the Medical College of Virginia, Virginia Commonwealth University.
Dr. Galdini practiced in an underserved community in Alabama before she was recruited by (now retired) family practitioner Dr. Bonnie Waldrop to join First Care PC in Portsmouth. “Angie was intuitive, kind and generous,” Dr. Waldrop remembers, “and an excellent doctor.”
Dr. Galdini also served on the family practice medical staff of Bon Secours Maryview Hospital. Throughout the years, she became known not just for her medical skill, but for her unwavering devotion to the uninsured and underserved members of her community. Always without judgment and frequently without payment, Dr. Galdini cared for these patients out of a genuine concern for their health. It was part of her personal mission, which was informed by a deep and abiding Christian faith.
She was specific about her mission. Among the words she wrote in the Bible that was never far from her side, are these:
Mission: to seek to stand hour by hour in the conscious presence of God, from whom my mission is derived…
To do what I can, moment by moment, day by day, step by step, to make this world a better place…
To know God, to love Him, and to serve…
God calls us to the place where my deep gladness and the world’s deep hunger meet…
When Angie Galdini could feed that hunger, she did. When she could heal wounds, both seen and unseen, she did. She did so unhesitatingly, both out of that sense of mission and out of the pure joy of helping make the world a better place.
A friend since they were both in school, Dr. Kelly Stern, a family practice physician with Patient First, knew about the extra hours Dr. Galdini spent seeing the patients who came to her for care. “She couldn’t bear to turn anyone away,” Dr. Stern remembers. “She had a genuine servant’s heart, and was a true healer. She’s missed by so many – friends, colleagues, her church and family – but most of all, by her patients.”
Dr. Galdini is survived by her brother, Reynold G. Galdini, her niece Peggy and husband Vincent Votta, and by her nephew, Reynold B. Galdini.
