Testimonials

I’ve been blessed to know Randall for 20 years; both as a professional and friend. Training sessions and conversations are always filled with life-changing insights reinforced with his amazing antidotes and humor. Don’t miss these special reads!
— Trudy Newton, Senior Business Professional

“Randall Wright has a gift for insightful anecdotes. He brings wisdom from a career in pharmacy and public speaking to the very human stories he tells. Highly recommended.”
 — Gordon Kelley

“His written stories are pictures in time of the life he leads and of the interesting people and happenings he encounters. Stories that allow the reader to experience the author’s observations of the people he encounters as a pharmacist in Kansas.”
— Best Regards, David Fick

“Randall bypasses the dry science of pharmacy to focus on the humanity of the pharmacist-patient relationship in a series of fun and easy to read vignettes.”
— Pam and Chris Bacon

“Randall’s stories bring back so many memories of my own customers and patients. They make me laugh and cry. Health care providers will relate and non-healthcare people will get a view into why we do what we do. I hope the new generation of health care providers gets to have some of these kinds of relationships. Thanks, Randall for these wonderful stories.”
— Billie Kingsolver R.Ph.

“I couldn’t put it down. These short tales are fun and funny! ‘A peek behind the screen’ at our most exposed humanness. Randall’s ironic sifting of his memoirs of patient interactions is refreshing as well as interesting. He also reveals his own pleasant, intelligent and insightful self.”
— Rodger L Suchman, DDS, Lee’s Summit, MO

”Randall is a masterful storyteller, pulling the reader into the daily, ordinary, and not so ordinary experiences at the pharmacy. His stories mirror the mastery of connecting with individuals in ways that sustain body and spirit. Within these pages, you will find the voice of the human side of medical prescriptions. Powerful, engaging! You’ll smile at some, laugh with others!”
— Ruth Herrman Siress Speaker/Author Working Woman’s Communication Survival Guide

“These heartwarming stories reveal the true reward of a career in retail pharmacy: the human connection. From a small-town pharmacist who brings his dog to work to a nursing home resident who unveils her past as a groundbreaking scientist, Wright introduces us to a host of colorful characters from his past. The book is full of poignant moments, which are narrated with warmth and humor. Reading it, caused me to reflect on the interesting and sometimes harrowing experiences from my own 40-year career in retail pharmacy. Randall Wright reminds all of us that taking a little time to visit with the customers, patients, and friends around us often unearths valuable stories that enrich our lives.”
— Rose Fitz Wilson R.Ph.

“When I think of Randall, my first reaction is to smile: smile at all the funny sayings, stories, jokes, and incidents I recall him engineering. I flash on the posh restaurant in Colorado where he barraged another colleague with last sardonic humor or the ad-lib times at business meetings that had others gasping with laughter. Yet, in thinking, I associate Randall most with integrity. There was the time he walked out of a training workshop mid-way, telling the audience, sorry, he just didn’t know the subject. Or when he told a business associate he didn’t agree with the group and to count him out. Randall’s humor is encased in integrity, and empathy for the situation, a realization of the person.”
— Micki Holliday, Regional Director, Brown Mackie College, EDMC

“There is a lot to be said about learning from years of experience. Every pharmacy student graduating and starting their careers should read this book. After 33 years of being a pharmacist, Randall speaks of the human side of dispensing medicines. Not just to the patients, all labeled with numbers, but to the human spirit and soul.”
— Jean Dreiling, Lawrence, KS

“Our friend Randall is a wordsmith, and one of our favorite people on the planet. He has turned seemingly ordinary encounters in daily life into a collection of vignettes that are not only thought-provoking but often smile provoking as well.” (I was going to sign it “Bubba and No. 1” — but I thought better of it. 🙂 )
— Sheila Connolly and Suzanne Morrissey

“Humor is a serious thing. I like to think of it as one of our greatest earliest natural resources, which must be preserved at all cost.” Quote by James Thurber. “When I read Randall’s pages I think of how much Thurber would have enjoyed reading about Randall’s observations at the pharmacy. I kinda believe he would be definitely in favor of the conservation of this wonderfully funny resource!”
— Sherri Cram, Educator

“Looking back on my childhood, I have a lot of great memories and I was blessed by so many different people in so many different ways. Randall was one of those people. I made yearly summer trips to Kansas City. I remember whenever I would visit, the trip wouldn’t be complete without going to see Randall. He had a way with my brother and me. He knew exactly how to connect with us and make us feel so extremely special. Whether it was driving his boat on the lake, going swimming, looking at the stars at night through the telescope, or falling off the dock while fishing and laughing about it years later. Randall holds a special place in my heart and always will. Some of my greatest childhood memories are spent with him, and his brother on that lake. Thank you Randall for your kind-hearted, nurturing spirit. You have touched so many. You are dear to so many.”
— Elle Campbell, Dental Assistant

“Randall once again touches us with his insight, compassion, and humor in the life of the pharmacist as he, along with his peers, touch people’s lives during their time of need and unique situations, which, let’s be honest, we all face from time to time. This personal and touching snap-shot of one of life’s routine events opens the blinds into the window of humanity and gives us a peek of how we move through each other’s lives never fully realizing just how much impact we actually can have on each other. It reminds me of a beautiful character played by James Stewart, George Bailey, in the classic film “It’s a Wonderful Life”. Randall reveals LIFE. What you will find in this book is how Randall opens these brief moments of life in which we do have the capacity to make a difference to those around us; even when they may not actually realize it in their moment. This book, as did his first one, reveals this incredible experience we call humanity. It shows us clearly how our interaction has an impact, even if we never see each other again. So, read and enjoy, then go out into your day and make a difference in such a way it will create memories of joy and love in others’ lives. Why? Because it just has the potential to change your life for the better. We all want that right?”
— Rev. Ken R Duke, Chaplin, Coquille Police Department

“Love the stories of Randall’s book. He is so amazing … weaves stories that take the reader right into the sights, sounds, smells. But, we have known that about him for a long time.”
— Ruth Hermann Siress, RHS Training Services

“Randall is a spoonful of sugar that makes the medicine go down.”
— Jim Siress, Management Consultant

“This guy feeds my passion to be a pharmacist!”
— Grant Duncan, Pharmacy Student University of Kansas

“Randall Wright’s humorous telling of heartwarming stories in “It’s Good to See You Again” reminds me of the reason I entered into health care, to care and connect with patients and to listen and try to understand what is important to them.”
— Maggi Choplin, RN, COHN-S, Corporate Services Manager Wellness and Medical Services Hallmark Cards

KIRKUS REVIEW

“A veteran pharmacist and international speaker chronicle his 33-year career through the tribulations of his customers.

Sharing stories that have “stumbled around my head and heart, some for years,” Wright (It’s Good to See You Again, 2016) offers brief anecdotes of varying degrees of poignancy, cheer, friendliness, panic, and goodwill from the retail pharmacy where he worked. He begins his book with an admission that, initially, his duties revolved more around the multitiered aspects of clinical knowledge, regulations, and safety measures than on social interaction.

With the accumulation of customer encounters, he notes, came a different perspective and a “deeper awareness” of the patient experience from the dispensary side of the business. “Like a good novel,” he writes appreciatively, “all the elements of drama are there: life, death, laughter, love, and dynamic characters.” His anecdotes, most barely over a page in length, are potent, affecting, introspective, and infinitely relatable; readers will recognize some aspect of themselves in many of these vignettes.

Spanning periods as far back as 1975, when Wright was just out of the University of Kansas School of Pharmacy, he remembers the first time witnessing a customer taking pills he’d just dispensed in his presence. Other accounts feature late-night phone calls and unexpected visits from worried customers looking for unbiased assurance and advice, colicky babies, asthma sufferers, and Plan B seekers. The book’s brevity is least appreciated after Wright divulges a diagnosis of Parkinson’s disease in 2006 when he began existing on both sides of the pharmacy counter and his “faith in medicine got a test.” But the minimal details may leave readers wanting to know more about the author. Adding to the allure of this collection are the many pearls of pharmacy wisdom closing several stories.

Wright taps into the wellspring of reflective episodes and experiences that informed his rich career and, though he recognizes that pharmacy work is demanding, he writes that it also can be greatly fulfilling, life-affirming, and heartwarming. Within these eloquently presented memories, the author reveals the essence of his livelihood: to compassionately and professionally tap into the vital connection between “a very trusting public and very potent chemica1s.”

A surprisingly vibrant and rewarding volume spotlighting the true nature and largely unacknowledged heart of a pharmacist.”

-Kirkus Review
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