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Every Groom Should Be This Lucky

LOS ANGELES — Marital vows often include commitments “for better for worse, for richer for poorer, in sickness and in health.” Long-married couples can assure newlyweds that many surprises come along. They’re fun when they involve the better, richer, or health part, yet other surprises can strengthen a marriage too. It’s common, for example, for couples to be apart for an extended time. Modern, instantaneous communication makes that less difficult than it once was. It’s also common for couples to face serious illnesses. In these respects, the experience of a couple ...

The Day The Dinosaur Ate Me

How old was I when the dinosaur ate me? I must have been about nine years old. I dimly recall holding Dad’s hand as he walked me up the steps of the massive original entrance to Pittsburgh’s Carnegie Museum of Natural History. I remember looking up, up and further up at the huge bronze door, one of a triad. “Imposing” is an understatement. The facade could have been the home of “Conan the Barbarian” for all its dark gray mythic splendor. To a kid of nine, it was just b-i-g. We had not come to Pittsburgh to see the museum. Back in probably 1952, Dad and his two ...

A Shared Team Approach Is 1st Option

We met Mason, a retired nurse practitioner for his first counseling therapy session. His friend, Christian, called to initiate help for his friend. Mason arrived alone. He looked to be physically drained. As Mason began to unfold a vision of helplessness and hopelessness, he conveyed a clear statement of having no suicidal thoughts. He referenced family of origin, siblings, his own children and grandchildren and friends/acquaintances who might be aware of his plight. A common theme representing all groups was him not wanting to burden them. Socially, he reportedly liked sports, which he ...

Inactive Voters Are Worrisome Wildcard

Registered voters in New York State fall into two main categories — active and inactive voters. I contend that sending mail-in ballots to inactive voters is problematic. This is not to be confused with absentee voting. New York state has had absentee voting for a long time. If someone is in the military, has a permanent or temporary physical disability, is out of the county on Election Day, or an election official working on Election Day, they are able to make an application to the Board of Elections, and if approved, have a paper ballot sent to the address listed on their ...

The Virus, The Pandemic — Getting Back to Basics

Over the past six months our world has changed to a degree we could not have predicted. The impact of COVID-19 to most of us has been challenging, for many overwhelming, and to others, devastating. On a daily basis all of us, lay people as well as health care professionals, are presented with a dizzying array of information and recommendations from many sources, some more reliable than others. Most acknowledge that we are in the early stages of understanding this ‘novel’ or ‘new’ virus, and as such suggest that we stay tuned as new data may result in a different directive ...

Individuals Make A Difference In Many Lives

My wife is the victim of a degenerative brain disease called fronto-temporal dementia (FTD). It starts in one part of the brain, in this case, the frontal and/or temporal lobes, and, over the course of years, spreads to other areas, progressively altering, diminishing, or even eliminating various functional capacities, similar to Alzheimer’s disease and other progressive dementias. There is, at this time, no medical cure for it, and in fact, there is still little that is really known about its cause. There is an apparent genetic component to it, and her father and her uncle both had ...