Quite simply, I have always lived more in my head than in my heart. As a pediatrician and the longtime medical leader of both the Deer Valley Resort and the Park City Mountain Resort on-mountain medical teams, my early childhood predisposition and affinity to science (and ultimately medicine) has served me well. I have treated literally thousands of patients over the years. And I consider myself privileged to have been able to provide both care and consolation to those in need of my skills and talents.
On any given day, I can be faced with life-and-death decisions that require not only an understanding of human nature but also a vast encyclopedic knowledge of standard protocols, complex procedures, prescriptive approaches, and surgical outcomes. My decisions are carefully considered, patient centered, and caringly advocated. My patient’s lives literally depend on me. And there simply isn’t any room for errors in my chosen line of work. (Or, for that matter, any practicing or attending physician. I am no different.)
I was born in what seems like a very different world than the one that we live in today. Penn’s Woods (or Pennsylvania for those not a product of the suburbs south of Philadelphia) was a simpler, more rural place than it is now. My parents were very “old school” and married after a short courtship when my mother was in her early twenties and my father was in his mid-thirties.
My mother was vivacious and a model of openness. She expressed her feelings clearly, honestly, and frankly. She possessed an ability to describe and illuminate the solution to almost any problem. And she naturally and freely displayed her emotions.
When my father died after a protracted and grueling battle with cancer, she was left to raise two children, and I was left at an early age to be the “man of the house.” This tumultuous time period transformed me, and I increasingly found ever-greater comfort in ideas, equations, books—as well as the quiet outdoors, where I could be surrounded by the smells, sounds, and wonders of nature.
As an adult, I have changed over time, but it wasn’t until I met and married Nancy that I truly became the man and husband that I am now. She changed my life. She changed my world. Simply, Nancy changed me in such a way that I could never again live as a man divided.
This is our story—a tale of despair, of love, and ultimately of survival. And, like all stories, it has a beginning—one that, for me, begins with the change of the seasons.