Poetically it happened while I was visiting the “Body Worlds” exhibit. My mother-in-law called to tell me that my father had just had a stroke. Wooden framed slides of brains that had suffered strokes hung in front of me, coldly illustrating what my father was going through in that moment. My sympathetic nervous system was firing, and I was now asking all the questions…

My father survived his stroke, but the damage was severe. Today, years later, he struggles to walk around the house with support; his recovery has not been easy. …