Life is One Big Story

First and foremost, 'Life is one Big Story" is a written record of my beginnings, to know me as I was before they met me. Secondly, I want to dig through my memory files while my mind is still working well. Thirdly, writing this affords me the opportunity to revisit and re-examine my life's highs and lows, not idealized but with its warts and all. Finally, after becoming retired, new friends and acquaintances ask, "Who are you] and "What have you done?" This attempts to answer those questions, as well as reflect on what my life has taught me. Moreover, I have lived a large life that others might find interesting and worth reading about.

Everyone has a story to tell about their life, the circumstances that they were born into and what they did with what they had to work with. This is my story. Although not born and raised inside a gilded cage, I was rich with mentors along the way pushing and guiding me into the right direction. And, despite my being the son of nominally educated parents, I proudly ended my career as a Professor of Neurology and a Sleep Medicine Clinician. Yet, none of that could have been possible, were it not for the patient and persistent support of Annie, my beloved wife and mother of our exceptional daughter Inge.

Life has taken me from living in Belgium to the Netherlands to the USA and then to retirement living in Spain. Even in retirement, however, life has not been at a standstill. Annie and I make bi-annual trips to visit our little family in Dallas, and I keep engaged in my search for knowledge, understanding the latest scientific achievements, and exploring what this life is all about.

Insights(1) Aquarian drive, I possess a capacity for working tirelessly to accomplish my goals, be they overcoming an inferiority complex or pursuing multiple academic degrees while teaching school. No one had to push me; in fact, anyone discouraging or disparaging me just spurred me to strive even harder. (2) My grandfather's insistence that I take his first name Albert led me to discovering my patron saint, Albertus Magnus. His life and love of studying everything from Logic to Astronomy prompted me to emulate him by becoming a scientist exploring a variety of fields. Remarkably, I would exceed Albertus Magnus' methodology of observing, describing, and classifying; my business and academic studies would lead to making significant discoveries. Nevertheless, he remains the iconic embodiment of who I sought to be, and I cannot credit him enough for his inspiration. (3) Although shy and introverted in the past, I am at heart a social being, committed to taking care of people and being a loving, giving person. The hypocrisy that I rejected in the Catholic church, however, I encountered in hospitals and private companies where patients and clients were merely revenue generators. My humanistic side reached full bloom saving lives as the Clinical Director of one of the largest sleep centers in the US, yet it cost me my job. While retired in Arenas, Andalucia, Spain, I have been free to unsparingly volunteer my time and expertise orienting and assisting newcomers into the area. I experienced such a warm satisfaction from strengthening relationships with our neighbors and seeing all the positive results of my efforts. But when their problems started becoming my problems, I had to take a week of rest and relaxation in Algarve, Portugal where our best friends Eddy and Jeannine live, to revive myself. Nevertheless, I was honored being Alberto de Bentomiz!(4) I've been a risk-taking optimist, focusing not on what could go wrong, but on what could go right. Leaving the ordered comforts