Eye patients seeing double; Mother-son optometry duo is a first.

Byline: Ellie Oleson

AUBURN - Optometrist Dr. Gabriele M. Goszcz was born in 1947 in post-World War II Germany to a Polish father and German mother, then lived in Belgium before emigrating to the United States, where she continued to break barriers.

In 2006, Dr. Goszcz and her son became the first mother-child optometry team in the United States.

Dr. Goszcz said that her love of family and her strength came from her parents. When her father was a young man in Poland, he was taken to a Soviet work camp in Siberia, where he survived three years of forced labor and cold while helping build the Trans-Siberian Railroad.

"My father, Kazimierz Goszcz, was the youngest in a family of 13 children. He met my mother, Anna, during World War II, when my father was part of the Polish Allied Army that occupied Bochum, the German town my mother lived in," Dr. Goszcz said.

Even after the war, life was not easy. When Kazimierz and Anna married, they were forced out of Germany. "Mother lost her German citizenship because she had married a non-German, and Father didn't want to return to Poland because it was communist, so we went to Belgium, where my father worked in a coal mine," Dr. Goszcz said.

When she was 6 years old, in 1953, her family moved to the U.S. as part of a displaced persons program. "There we were, my parents with two kids, two suitcases and $300 cash and no knowledge of the English language."

The family moved to New Britain, Conn. "People called it `New Britski' because there was a large Polish community there. My father worked multiple jobs while my mother did piece work assembling padlocks. I was a skinny kid with a different accent. I practiced speaking well until my accent was gone," Dr. Goszcz said.

She graduated from Smith College, becoming the first in her family to ever earn a degree, then married, had two children and worked in social work for 12 years. When she was 32, she was widowed and left with two sons, ages 2 and 4.

"I was burned out from social work, but still wanted to make a qualitative difference in people's lives, so I went back to school," Dr. Goszcz said.

During four years at the New England College of Optometry in Boston, Dr. Goszcz often used her sons, Raphael and Christopher, as "guinea pigs" when practicing her lessons and techniques. "Raphael would run away, but Christopher was really interested," Dr. Goszcz said.

In 1989, she married Douglas Crawford, who adopted her sons, and opened her optometry practice in Auburn.

Her son Raphael G. Crawford, a global marketing director, married Dr. Alison Portnoy, a medical research physician in Villanova, Pa., and Christopher Goszcz Crawford married the former Emily Gerwick of Hudson. Rather than hyphenating their names, the Christopher and Emily combined their names to create "Goswick," their new family name.

Dr. Goswick, who had helped in his mother's practice from the time he was a teen, said his interest in science was "dramatically enhanced" by science teacher Helen Estaphan during his years at Auburn High School, from which he graduated in 1996.

After earning his degree from Connecticut College, Dr. Goswick worked in computer network security in California before changing careers.

"I wanted to work with people, to help people," he said. He went back to school at his mother's alma mater in Boston and became a licensed optometrist. During his years of study, his mother became his favorite guinea pig. "Payback," he said.

In 2006, he joined his mother's practice, which last year was renamed Perfect Focus Eyecare, at 150 Bryn Mawr Ave. in Auburn. The thriving practice treats "between 12,000 and 15,000 pairs of eyes," Dr. Goszcz said.

"In 2006, we became the first mother-child optometry team in the country. Most optometrists were men 20 years ago, so there are several father-child teams," Dr. Goszcz said, adding that she had checked with the National Optometric Association to confirm that they were the first mother-child team.

"My mom is a great boss," Dr. Goswick said. "Our office is homey, but filled with the latest technology. We enjoy working together."

Dr. Goszcz said, "Our patients are like family. I wouldn't trust them with anyone other than Christopher. We keep it in the family."

ART: PHOTOS

PHOTOG: T&G Staff/DAN GOULD

CUTLINE: (1) Mother and son optometry team are a first in the U.S. Read about Dr. Gabriele M. Goszcz and Dr. Christopher Goswick. (2) Dr. Gabriele M. Goszcz and her son Dr. Christopher Goswick at Perfect Focus Eyecare in Auburn.