“Hi,” he began, tentatively. “This is James Ax.” They spoke for hours that evening, the first of a series of lengthy and intense conversations between Ax and his two sons. Ax shared his regrets about how he had abandoned his boys and acknowledged the damage his anger had caused. The boys forgave Ax, eager to have their father back in their lives. Over time, Ax and his sons forged close relationships. In 2003, after Ax became a grandfather, he and Barbara, his ex-wife, reunited and established their own unlikely friendship. Three years later, at the age of sixty-nine, Ax died of colon cancer.
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