After more than four decades of service to the Delaware community, Dr. Jane Graebner is riding off into retirement.

Graebner, who founded the Foot and Ankle Wellness Center (FAAWC) in Delaware in July 1982, finished her last day on Aug. 27, punctuating a 42-year career in podiatry that has impacted the lives of so many in Delaware and the county at large.

But for as important as her service to Delaware has been through the years, Graebner is equally appreciative of what the community has meant to her, both with a sense of belonging and in her personal growth.

“Somebody said once that my practice isn’t like other practices, that it actually was my ministry,” Graebner told The Gazette. “I met so many people over those 42 years, and some of the things I took from their stories is I learned how I wanted to age. I admired some of the seniors I was treating, and some of them were miserable. So it was an interesting life lesson.”

She added, “I feel like I became a part of this community. I adopted it, and they accepted me. I moved a lot growing up, and here I’m living essentially in the same community longer than any time in my whole life.”

Graebner got her start in podiatry at 17 years old, working for a world-renowned podiatrist in Chicago who took care of some of the most prominent figureheads in the city, including basketball legend Michael Jordan and members of the Chicago Bulls, as well as the Chicago Bears and the Chicago Ballet.

That experience proved pivotal in her development and, combined with her drive to lead with a personalized touch, set her on the path to owning her own practice.

“I’m 17 years old and supposed to be the file clerk, and he was showing me how to do surgery and having me do medical drawings for their articles they published,” Graebner recalled. “So I had an example of really, really excellent work. I asked him once why he liked being a podiatrist, and he said it’s because he was a big fish in a little pond because there wasn’t a lot of pediatrist in those days. … It isn’t like there’s a pediatrist on every corner. But I think it was again my stubbornness or desire to do things my way and then it went from there.”

Graebner said she had a vision of what she wanted to create with her practice and didn’t believe she could find it elsewhere. As she wrapped up school in Chicago, Graebner began looking for a home in Ohio where she could set up a practice. Like so many others, she was struck by the charm of Delaware and elected to plant her roots in central Ohio.

“My parents lived in Medina but there were too many podiatrists already practicing there so I decided to find my own town,” she said. “So when I went searching through Delaware and other parts of Ohio, I just loved all the trees and porch swings and how cute the town looked. I guess I picked well because it’s been one of the fastest-growing counties in the nation.”

Graebner originally set up shop in the Georgetown Shopping Center on Central Avenue but joked that she didn’t “plan for success very well” as her practice quickly outgrew the space, which only had four chairs in the waiting room.

“Within three years, people were coming with their families, too, and I had standing room only in a foot doctor’s waiting room, which isn’t a very good (dynamic),” Graebner said.

To accommodate the growing practice, Graebner moved just down the road to the Troy Road Shopping Center, where she stayed for 12 years before also outgrowing that space. She again moved — this time to nearby Grandview Avenue — and was located there for 15 years before electing to build a brand new building.

The current location at 1871 W. William St. opened in 2012, a moment Graebner said presented a feeling of permanence with no longer having to worry about the temporary nature of renting. That sense of permanency for Graebner also extended to the practice itself and its place in Delaware’s future long after she bowed out.

“When you’re renting, there’s that feeling that it’s not yours,” she said. “And I had run out of places I could rent that were big enough. We have 14 treatment rooms and two nail salons with certified nail technicians. We have upwards of 30 people employed there. When I started, I had one employee and then two. It’s just phenomenal to think about the growth and the fact that I hope that center will always be there and always be a pediatry office.”

Graebner said that while she and her husband still own the building, a clause in the contract states that if she ever wants to sell it, it will go to the owners of the practice. The building must be sold by 2031, Graebner added, and she’s happy to do so because she “doesn’t want to be a landlord.”

Over her 42 years of practice in Delaware, the center has grown from just Graebner and, at times, an associate, to five doctors, including a nurse practitioner and four pediatrists. Graebner was also brought into Grady Hospital as the hospital’s first female surgeon, furthering her impact on the community.

But recently, Graebner began realizing the time to walk away from her work was nearing as her focus became increasingly diverted to what she wanted to pursue outside the office. She stopped performing surgeries in 2019 and has been decreasing her office hours for several years.

“I’ve never in my life been like this with my practice where, this spring, I would actually go to the office on Tuesdays and Thursdays and I would look to try and see how many more patients I had so I could go home and do something else,” Graebner admitted. “I’m taking harp lessons, I’m getting into genealogy, and I have so many hobbies started that I want more time with them…”

With additional time to live her life as she pleases, Graebner has also developed a bucket list and already made a dent in it, including going sky diving, taking a trip to Egypt, and going on a cruise through Greece and Turkey.

Most importantly, Graebner wants to be able to give her undivided attention to her 9-month-old granddaughter and family in ways she wasn’t always able to do with her children given the nature of her profession.

“I feel like I can now be of support,” she said. “My kids knew what it was like to have a mom who got called on a weekend and —I won’t say put them second, but my husband has often said that I put my patients first. Now it’s nice to know there’s nobody competing for my family. There’s no other calling or duty I have to do.”

By not retiring “cold turkey,” Graebner said it’s been easier to leave something that’s occupied such a large part of her life for so many years. Still, there are certain aspects of the profession she won’t easily put to rest.

“I will miss that opportunity to grow and learn every day,” she said. “I will still see something on an x-ray that I haven’t seen in my whole 42-year career, and I would say to them that it’s amazing that I’ve never seen this. I was in wonderment that there was still so much out there to learn, do, and see. … And I will miss the people. I miss the contact, and I’m going to have to make sure I do some things out in the public that involve other people.”

She added, “I’m going to need that community of people still, somehow.”

And while she may be parting ways with the physical work associated with the profession, she is happy to be able to continue the enduring relationships she’s formed with colleagues and patients alike in time.

“I started realizing that I was married to my practice so I’d better get myself a circle of friends to enjoy afterward,” she said. “On my last day, several of the patients brought me gifts and flowers, and several of the employees got me things. It meant a lot to know that they keep saying how much they will miss me.”