March 2018 – Erie County Medical Center – Buffalo, New York: Jim Kelly stared at the doctor. Cancer again. The first time, it had scared him. The second time, he was even more frightened. This time – his third diagnosis with squamous cell carcinoma...
June 24, 1992 – Seattle, Washington: It had been three days since the tragic climbing accident on Mt. Rainier. Jim wrote a letter to his best friend. He began, “Dear Mike, I will strive to take this second chance I’ve been given, unfurl my wings and fly with it, and...
June 1989 – Death Row, Holman Prison – Atmore, Alabama: Thursday was execution day on death row. Ray lay awake in his five by seven-foot cell located 30 steps from the death chamber where the electric chair, “Yellow Mama,” sat. He couldn’t sleep, because the prisoner...
April 8, 1968 – Khe Sanh, Vietnam: Captain Max Cleland received an order to set up a radio relay station on a hill east of Khe Sanh. As he exited the helicopter, the 26-year-old Army signal officer saw a grenade at his feet. When he reached down to pick it up, it...
September 29, 1953 – Wandsworth Prison – London, England: Alfred Hinds sat in his cell, dejected and despondent. His two-day trial had been a farce. After not allowing five of Hinds’s key witnesses to testify, the judge sentenced him to 12 years in prison for armed...
May 27, 1936 – Salinas, California: John Steinbeck reluctantly pinned the letter to his editor Elizabeth Otis. “My Irish Setter pup, Toby, left alone one night made confetti of my manuscript. I was pretty mad, but the poor little fellow may have been acting...
