A Memography

About the Book

This book is a story of one man’s life that grew up in small town America in a time of peace, became a scientist and has approached life with a scholarly bent. So this book is a “Memography”. Knowledge is learned and earned through life’s experiences. Wisdom is gained through thinking of the meaning of those experiences. Towards the end of a life, there is an innate desire to pass on knowledge and wisdom to a later generation and the prideful fear that all that you have learned will be lost. My family is scattered. Then, how can I tell them, and those who care, about my ancestry, my passage from small town West Virginia, my education, and my career as an Engineering Geologist or explain my experiences as a son, the husband of a remarkable woman, a father, a grandfather and the foster parent for 27 youngsters? How can I tell them how rewarding yet challenging it was to provide eldercare for my aunt with Alzheimer’s, my stroke suffering dad, and my cousin, a hoarder, overwhelmed by her weight? How can they know how my Catholicity and my spirituality have developed and have influenced my life and how can they know what I learned in treatment for Non-Hodgkin’s Lymphoma, the chemo, the radiation, the transplant? Well, they can read this “Memography”.

About the Author

Born in Eastern Kentucky just before WWII and raised in small town, southern West Virginia. The author was part of a small family, educated by Catholic nuns, and the first in his family to attend college. He approached adulthood with a naiveté that was extreme, stumbled successfully into adulthood, married a remarkable woman, had a fulfilling career, raised a family, provided care for foster children and then for elderly loved ones and has, with the support of many, successfully (thus far) faced some aggressive treatment for Non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma. The author is now retired, travels and lives peacefully and in remission on the banks of the Ohio River.