A Labor of Love, Volume 1

Let’s now get to the underbelly of my dad’s unique story. I want to share this volume’s master plan with you so you can invest more easily for what’s in store. It will help you better appreciate a journey you may one day travel yourself. Know that I will be selective in my father’s biography; this is no tell-all book! Here in Volume 1, my father’s life, starting with his literal conception up to the point of his divorce at around age fifty, will be compared to the fate and fortunes of Hercules. This volume concludes with my father’s retirement. You may be curious as to why I would start with Dad’s conception. That is precisely when the die was cast, and he inherited the disfiguring Huntingtin gene that would set his life on a trajectory leading to his disfigurement and an early demise. It was like watching him turn into some contorted cartoon creature, a scarecrow, a stick figure of the man I knew and loved. The love never stopped for either of us. I will familiarize you with this disease, starting with a small dose of describing what Huntington’s disease (HD) is. Frankly, it’s too much to read in one fell swoop, and that’s not all this story is about by a long shot! I am aware that most didn’t pick up this book solely to learn about this deadly disease, let alone hear what happened during the Greek Civil War as it blurred alongside World War II; however, these are the building blocks of my father’s life that make his narrative rich and unique. I want to honor him and his memory by bringing them to life here for you. Ι will introduce you to my father’s formative years in Greece from 1935 to 1945, during WWII and a part of the Greek Civil War, followed by his subsequent life in America. In this volume of the book, my dad will be our modern-day Hercules. The comparisons I make to Hercules here will be limited and relegated to Hercules’ experience before he performed the labors for which he became famous. You will not find a blow-by-blow biographical account but rather carefully selected snapshots; his story is not so much linear as parabolic. I want you to become familiar with the environmental “fish tank” into which my father was born. Cultural norms, societal expectations, historical events, and a nation’s values are imbued in the individual from birth through youth, so you will learn what was going on in the land in which my father was born and lived for the first decade or so of his life. Who my dad was at his core would be shaped by factors as influential as his biogenetic foundation. There will be historical events you will learn of in greater detail. Still, not all of my revisited recollections will be as accurate as if published by the Associated Press or detailed in the Encyclopedia Britannica. I am no historian; nonetheless, this will be a real account. I will compress time and bend his formative years to take you through vital moments of his adult life. Along the way, I add daubs of pertinent Greek history and, yes, simplified neurology as it relates to Huntington’s disease. To that end, Volume 1 is where you will learn all about what Huntington’s disease is — and what it is not. You’ll find our study of genetics and the parts of the brain adversely impacted by this disease fascinating. To do this account of my father justice, you must understand what was happening to him before we get to the point of no return, as in when the decline begins. Pockets and patches of himself got distorted, but you will know why. By the end of this first volume, you will know my father to his core, and by that, I mean his native personality, intelligence, and soul’s essence. Thus, you will be prepared for Volume 2 when the turning point occurs, and his decline is undeniable. Proportionately speaking, this book will cover three-fourths of his life. After the first chapter, each subsequent chapter covers (1) Greek history, (2) genetics, parts of the brain affected by Huntington’s disease, and features of the disease itself, and (3) my father’s background before we knew he had HD. That’s a lot in a short amount of space! Let’s now begin with a tiny primer on what HD is — and what it isn’t to know what would be in store for my father.