A blinding snowstorm led Manuel Sangalang, formerly of the Philippines, to Lewiston.

Sangalang had been training as an intern in Canada and gone to Boston to take exams. He and some fellow interns were on their way back to Saint John General Hospital in St. John, New Brunswick, when they found themselves in the midst of a blinding snowstorm.

“I got lost here. We thought we were in Canada!” he recalled. He discovered that Central Maine Medical Center needed an emergency room doctor. He stopped further training and began his work here. That was 1962.

Then-U.S. Sen. Margaret Chase Smith assisted him in securing his visa so he could stay and work in Maine. Five years later Sangalang became a citizen of the United States.

“My mother asked if I looked the same,” he said.

Meanwhile, he had been dating Mary, a student nurse at Saint John General Hospital. They had to meet at the border, because she could not come into the United States. Eventually she obtained her green card, and the two were married in 1970.

Mary became not only his wife, but his nurse and later his office manager and secretary.

Now, after 50 years of doctoring and membership in the Maine Medical Association, Sangalang has retired as an internist at St. Mary’s Medical Center.

Despite the busy life of a doctor, Sangalang found time for other activities. He has a Kora fez on which is inscribed “Emeritus Medical Director” and is available to respond to emergencies at the temple and at parades.

A survivor of colon cancer, Sangalang began painting when he worked as an emergency physician.

“It relaxes me,” Sangalang said.

He has also completed the 32nd degree as a Mason, the Pyramid degree as a member of Q from Belize.

He has earned the third level in Aikido, a Japanese form of martial arts that is called “the Art of Peace,” and according to Sangalang, “focuses on defense, to avoid fighting, noncompetitive, being protective.”

With all of these interests, Sangalang is perhaps better known as a table tennis enthusiast. “It keeps you mentally sharp and is good for the eyes and reflexes,” he said. “You have to be quick!”

He currently plays in an elimination league about two times a week at the Lewiston Armory. Manny, as his friends call him, has played in Bangor, Portland, Wiscasset and even Philadelphia.

 “(Playing table tennis is) good if you are tall,” Manny, who is 5 feet tall, said. “I have to run, … and I give them laughter. It’s good!”