LIFE IS DIFFICULT.

At 83 years of age, I've experienced a lot in life. This includes my own life, my family's, my Marine Corps friends during the Vietnam Era, and the lives of hundreds of my psychiatric patients and their families.

In addition to the above, I was raised by a mother who suffered from mental illness throughout her life. I have also dealt with my major depressive disease, similar to my mother's, intermittently throughout my adult life.

Furthermore, I was abandoned by my wife when our boys were in the third and fourth grades. To spare my boys the challenges of having a stepmother, I delayed remarriage until they were out of high school.

Now, in my later adult years, I have lived with a titanium aortic heart valve and the complications of taking a blood thinner to prevent a stroke (15 years), as well as Parkinson's disease (19 years), which is always progressing.

When Covid-19 overwhelmed our lives, my depression worsened. Following in my mother's footsteps and those of many of my depressed patients, I underwent electro-convulsive therapy (ECT). I'm happy to report that it worked.

I am not writing this to invite you to feel sorry for me. No, I am writing this to proclaim that I still find life to be meaningful. I'll try to outlive my current wife, who is ten years younger than me. By the way, we celebrated our silver wedding anniversary this past year.