Man is not made for defeat

NY Dispatch 10/4/2020: Today would have been my father’s 75th birthday, but he is not here to celebrate that milestone. I had had very limited contact with him over my adult life, but in 2008 I had to make end of life decisions for him as he lay dying in a coma. I had gotten a call from his sister that he was in the hospital and the prognosis was not good. I rented a car and drove from New York to rural North Carolina with my partner, not knowing what awaited us. We arrived in Ahoskie late in th...