with so many different treatments
still had buried in him,
somewhere, enough optimism
to reach out for one more.
And he had the cingulotomy,
and it was incredibly successful.
He's now a friend of mine.
He has a lovely wife
and two beautiful children.
He wrote me a letter
the Christmas after the surgery,
and he said,
"My father sent me two presents this year,
First, a motorized CD rack
from The Sharper Image
that I didn't really need,
but I knew he was giving it
to me to celebrate
the fact that I'm living on my own
and have a job I seem to love.
And the other present
was a photo of my grandmother,
who committed suicide.
As I unwrapped it, I began to cry,
and my mother came over and said,
'Are you crying because
of the relatives you never knew?'
And I said, 'She had
the same disease I have.'
I'm crying now as I write to you.
It's not that I'm so sad,
but I get overwhelmed,