Back Surgery Followup

Michael Gorman Just so the world knows, if I am tough enough it is because you ran me ragged at baseball, street football and all sorts of "tough guy" things. You took a little brother who had been sick for two years and pulled, pushed, prodded, encouraged me to swing the bat with the weights on it, to run a dozen street football routes fifteen times to both the left and right daily, to make the 126' baseball toss from a catcher's squat 10-20 times a day, and you did the arrangement and fielding for all of that. At the time I thought I was sometimes being cruelly used, but as a grown up I realized decades ago that you were saving me from a life of self pity as a sick kid. What a yoman's job you did. I did get tough. I fought most of my own fights, I hitchhiked more than 50,000 miles. I spent time, and got away, with people I knew were going to kill me. I could write a book, but what it comes down to is you, our sister Patty, and our sisters Peggy, Barbara, and Regina -- along with Mom and Tom, of course -- took a kid who was near death and weak as weak can be, and allowed me to grow into someone who became a great investigative journalist, a fantastic New York City chef, and an Amazon explorer. Not famous, not rich, but who cares. I got to get my fingernails good and dirty and that is what counts. So thanks for doing that for me. I appreciate it boundlessly. (I'm still probably gonna be screaming for our mom when the doc starts burning off nerve endings tomorrow!!!!!)