[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":-1},["ShallowReactive",2],{"doc-seo-639014-105":3,"detail-sidebar-cat-0-en-105":78,"doc-detail-639014-en":128},{"code":4,"msg":5,"data":6},0,"ok",{"site_id":7,"language":8,"slug":9,"title":10,"keywords":11,"description":12,"schema_data":13,"social_meta":71,"head_meta":73,"extra_data":75,"updated_unix":77},105,"en","a-wretch-like-me-a-musical-pharmacist","“A Wretch Like Me” - A Musical Pharmacist","","A musical pharmacist recounts a decade of life shaped by a record store and the Vinyl Café radio letters that brought unexpected visitors from across Canada. Despite industry decline after major chains closed and music consumption shifted, vinyl revived while profound personal loss struck when his partner Patty died after a brain tumor. He describes music as therapy that rewires the brain, bridges suffering, teaches languages, and renews purpose, including his own.",{"@graph":14,"@context":70},[15,34,49],{"@type":16,"itemListElement":17},"BreadcrumbList",[18,23,27,31],{"item":19,"name":20,"@type":21,"position":22},"https://docshare.wps.com","Home","ListItem",1,{"item":24,"name":25,"@type":21,"position":26},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/","Document",2,{"item":28,"name":29,"@type":21,"position":30},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/story-novel/","Story & Novel",3,{"item":32,"name":10,"@type":21,"position":33},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/a-wretch-like-me-a-musical-pharmacist/639014/",4,{"url":32,"name":10,"@type":35,"author":36,"headline":10,"publisher":39,"fileFormat":42,"inLanguage":8,"description":12,"dateModified":43,"datePublished":43,"encodingFormat":42,"isAccessibleForFree":44,"interactionStatistic":45},"DigitalDocument",{"name":37,"@type":38},"miaandmiso","Person",{"url":19,"name":40,"@type":41},"DocShare","Organization","application/pdf","2026-10-22",true,{"@type":46,"interactionType":47,"userInteractionCount":4},"InteractionCounter",{"@type":48},"ViewAction",{"@type":50,"mainEntity":51},"FAQPage",[52,58,62,66],{"name":53,"@type":54,"acceptedAnswer":55},"What prompted the author to write to Stuart McLean?","Question",{"text":56,"@type":57},"He previously wrote a letter about their record store and the people who shopped there, which Stuart read on air.","Answer",{"name":59,"@type":54,"acceptedAnswer":60},"How did the author’s store continue despite major changes in the music business?",{"text":61,"@type":57},"The economic hardships and closures threatened the shop, yet the store expanded and vinyl sales rebounded after a difficult period.",{"name":63,"@type":54,"acceptedAnswer":64},"How did Patty’s illness and death affect the author’s life?",{"text":65,"@type":57},"Patty’s brain tumor and passing left him alone to raise two adolescent boys while keeping the business running, and he coped through turning to music.",{"name":67,"@type":54,"acceptedAnswer":68},"Why does the author call music a powerful therapy?",{"text":69,"@type":57},"He describes music as reshaping the brain and helping people reconnect, teach languages, bridge cultures, transcend tragedy, and renew love and purpose.","https://schema.org",{"og:url":32,"og:type":72,"og:title":10,"og:site_name":40,"og:description":12},"article",{"robots":74,"canonical":32},"index,follow",{"doc_id":76,"site_id":7},639014,1792701193,{"code":4,"msg":79,"data":80},"success",[81,84,88,92,97,102,107,112,117,120,124],{"id":22,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":29,"show_sort_weight":82,"slug":83},90,"story-novel",{"id":26,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":85,"show_sort_weight":86,"slug":87},"Literature",80,"literature",{"id":33,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":89,"show_sort_weight":90,"slug":91},"Exam",70,"exam",{"id":93,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":94,"show_sort_weight":95,"slug":96},5,"Comic",60,"comic",{"id":98,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":99,"show_sort_weight":100,"slug":101},6,"Technology",50,"technology",{"id":103,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":104,"show_sort_weight":105,"slug":106},7,"Healthcare",40,"healthcare",{"id":108,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":109,"show_sort_weight":110,"slug":111},8,"Research & Report",30,"research-report",{"id":113,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":114,"show_sort_weight":115,"slug":116},9,"Religion & Spirituality",20,"religion-spirituality",{"id":115,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":118,"show_sort_weight":115,"slug":119},"World Cup","world-cup",{"id":121,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":122,"show_sort_weight":121,"slug":123},10,"Lifestyle","lifestyle",{"id":125,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":126,"show_sort_weight":93,"slug":127},19,"General","general",{"code":4,"msg":79,"data":129},{"doc_id":76,"user_id":130,"nickname":37,"user_avatar":131,"doc_module":4,"category_id":22,"category_name":29,"doc_title":10,"doc_description":12,"doc_content":132,"file_id":133,"file_url":134,"file_type":135,"file_size":136,"view_count":4,"is_deleted":4,"is_public":22,"is_downloadable":22,"audit_status":22,"page_count":30,"language":137,"language_code":8,"site_id":7,"html_lang":8,"table_of_contents":138,"faqs":139,"seo_title":140,"seo_description":12,"update_tm":77,"read_time":93},7971478544854,"https://ap-avatar.wpscdn.com/davatar_994ba38a5ba835b3df7d355c54d3ed8d","“A Wretch Like Me”: A Musical Pharmacist  \nRobert Charles-Dunne, the real-life owner of The Village Idiot, a record store in London, Ontario, Canada, wrote to Stuart McLean, the host of the Vinyl Café. The Vinyl Café is a Canadian Broadcasting Corporation radio show that features music, poignant letters shared on air, and the life of a fictional family that also owns a record store. The following letter was read on the show. It is an edited version of CharlesDunne’s personal testimony to the power of music.  \nDear Stuart,  \nTen years ago, I wrote you a letter about our record store and the people who shop in it. You were kind enough to read it on air, which led to a remarkable phenomenon: for years thereafter, people from across Canada stuck their head into our store and said,“I heard Stuart read your letter and vowed that if I were ever in London, I would come to see your store.”Thus far, the Vinyl Café listeners who traveled farthest to our store came from Nunavut    \nThat our store still exists   is itself a minor miracle, for  \na variety of reasons. The Sam “The Record Man”and Music World chains are both gone, as are others. The HMV chain was recently sold for a pittance, and has been rebranding itself for years, in the face of declining music sales. What are known as Mom & Pop shops . . . have been closing in record numbers, and others teeter on the brink. Yet our store is now twice the size it was when I last wrote to you, and it could double in size again if only I could find a retail space in the same neighbourhood [sic] large enough and had the resources tostock it    \nThe entire music-buying landscape has shifted dramatically, and the economic hardships of recent years have only further hobbled what was already a diminishing business. The mixed news is this: compact discs are now on the endangered list and will soon be declared dead, to be replaced by downloads, but vinyl sales are on the rebound in ways that nobody would have imagined when we first opened our store. In fact, when we opened, everyone we knew either predicted our imminent demise, or suspected it would occur but were too polite to say so. Who opens a record store after the vinyl  \nformat has been officially declared extinct by labels that would no longer manufacture it?  \nWhen you read my letter . . . my partner Patty and I were elated. But a few days later came September 11, 2001, and, along with the rest of the world, we grievedin stunned disbelief, our temporary high deflated into insignificance. Life is fleeting, and what matters most is not always obvious. But music is tremendously powerful therapy, even when the universe unfolds in dreadfully unexpected ways. Suddenly, people hada special need to reconnect with the essential benefits only music can provide. And through other circumstances, I soon became one of them.  \nMuch has happened in the past ten years, Stuart. Eight months after my last letter to you, my sweetheart and store partner Patty was diagnosed with a brain tumor and died five excruciating months later. I will not dwell on this point   Patty received the finest treatment humanly possible unto the very end. I have always been a hugely proud Canadian, but was made even more so by the respect and loving attention Patty received toward the end of her journey   \nThe loss of so loved a partner reduced me to an empty shell,[and] now left [me] alone to raise two adolescent boys and run a small business when I no longer had the heart to continue. The record store had been Patty’s dream, not mine. In the 1970s and 80s, she had worked for many years for Sam“The Record Man,” while I had been a music industry weasel  \nin a variety of roles. Until her illness, we hadn’t planned that I would work much in the store. But with her illness, I had no choice but take the reins and make the best of a bad situation. The past nine years since her death have been devoted to creating a store of which Patty could be proud, and someday I will achieve that goal","cbCaiiTIuSXCKRsp","https://ap.wps.com/l/cbCaiiTIuSXCKRsp","pdf",104708,"English","# The Vinyl Café Letter\n## The Record Store’s Survival\n## Industry Change and Personal Grief\n## Music’s Therapeutic Power","[{\"question\":\"What prompted the author to write to Stuart McLean?\",\"answer\":\"He previously wrote a letter about their record store and the people who shopped there, which Stuart read on air.\"},{\"question\":\"How did the author’s store continue despite major changes in the music business?\",\"answer\":\"The economic hardships and closures threatened the shop, yet the store expanded and vinyl sales rebounded after a difficult period.\"},{\"question\":\"How did Patty’s illness and death affect the author’s life?\",\"answer\":\"Patty’s brain tumor and passing left him alone to raise two adolescent boys while keeping the business running, and he coped through turning to music.\"},{\"question\":\"Why does the author call music a powerful therapy?\",\"answer\":\"He describes music as reshaping the brain and helping people reconnect, teach languages, bridge cultures, transcend tragedy, and renew love and purpose.\"}]","“A Wretch Like Me” - A Musical Pharmacist | PDF"]