When I was ten years old, arthritis presented in my life and has remained my constant companion since. Not long after I became ill, my father, who worked for the state in the field of agriculture, was out on the road surveying orchards in Butte County. He had stopped by a river to eat his lunch and he settled down under a tree with a heavy heart, for he carried the Heartbreaking burden of a father who had to watch his Beloved child endure endless pain and a constant, relentless destruction of the body through joint deteriorization. He felt helpless in a way that might be rightly understood if one has ever had or has a child who is stricken with a catastrophic illness.

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