I knew right away that something was amiss. There was a sense of unease and a stiffness to the hug she gave me when she came through our front door that Sunday afternoon as she returned from her 10th high school reunion. Her light blonde hair was bound in a ponytail and the late afternoon sunlight pouring into our living room bounced off her porcelain-white skin. She wore no makeup. She almost never did during the daytime...

"So many machines," Patty thought, as she closed the door behind her. The digital gauges on the bank of monitors mounted behind her husband's bed displayed an array of numbers and graphs, signaling every infinitesimal change to Brian's blood pressure, oxygen level and breathing rate. The up and down movement of the electrocardiogram display reassuringly showed that his heartbeat was steady. Patty saw the jumble of monitor...

The way the fight started was the subject of dispute for a long time afterwards. I was a high school freshman, playing forward on my school’s junior varsity team. I was always pretty tall, about 6’2 (188 cm) and I was aggressive on the basketball court. We were winning against our most hated rival, the rich kids of Locust Valley High, when someone threw an elbow at one of my teammates. I don’t think I threw the first punc...