By:Elizabeth Sagarin
Baldwinite receives award from governor
She would have been on time if she didn't have to deliver a baby that morning, but thankfully the governor was late, too.
Dr. Marilyn A. Robertson of Baldwin got a late start to a ceremony on March 8 where she was to receive an Award of Excellence from Gov. Pataki.
She raced over to the hospital to deliver a baby around 10 a.m., rushed home, got ready, jumped in a limousine with her husband, picked up members of the family and then went into the city to join a ceremony that was to start at 2:30 p.m. Whether luck, circumstance or residual storm activity held Pataki up until almost 4, Robertson made it in for her big day with time to spare.
Robertson is a board certified obstetrician/gynecologist specializing in high-risk pregnancies. She has had a private practice in Hempstead since 1993 and continues to be an attending physician on staff at Mercy Medical Center and Nassau University Medical Center. She also helped form the Women's Health Center at Franklin General Medical.
Being out in the community, understanding what is affecting the quality of women's lives and addressing those needs in a compassionate manner was one of the most significant reasons she was honored at the sixth annual New York State Division for Women's celebration of International Women's Day, sponsored by the governor.
Because of her experiences in county hospitals she was inspired to create an all-in-one facility called Total Women's Wellness, that has been in operation for three years. At the facility, Robertson has been able to supply all women with the kind of attention she gives her private patients, but on a more holistic scale.
While six other women there to be honored with their families sat among reporters, photographers and other attendees, Robertson sat quietly off from her family looking over a piece of paper that would later help her get through an emotional acceptance speech.
She appeared to be deep in thought, curled over a piece of paper on her lap that she added last-minute touches to, in the hopes of expressing all the appreciation she had for her parents, Nina and David, who emigrated from Curacao with their four children in the 1960s to realize the American dream.
The tears that ran down Robertson's cheeks when she stepped onto the podium and looked out and saw her mother sitting there with her sister and husband, while her father stayed on Long Island to pick up and take care of her four boys after school, said it all. She was proud and grateful for what her parents enabled her to accomplish, she said.
To her and the rest of the room, it was a confirmation that hard work and determination bring good things in a time when cynicism is easy to succumb to, especially for black women. Whether race and/or gender factored into Robertson's journey, she maintained a clear focus on what she knew from an early age she wanted to achieve.
When she met her husband a little over 20 years ago, she was attending Nassau Community College. She continued her studies and went on to receive a Bachelor of Science degree from Hofstra University in 1983.
Together, the couple created an 11-year plan that, upon her request, included six children by the time she was in her residency. They married in 1985 while she was in the Medical College of Pennsylvania, and during that time their first son, Michael, was born. I remember her calling me before a test, crying, when she was pregnant,
