About the Author

Joseph Varughese had flip after flip in his remarkable life. He grew up in a tiny village in Kerala, South India with no electricity. With his parents far away in Oman, he lived with his overbearing grandmother and aunt, and felt deprived of love. His aunt filled his mind with wild, ghostly tales that made him tremble in the dark. But he was gifted and alert. "Everything looked magical to me at that age," he says, and he watched rapt as a local healer relieved his mother's heart disease with "sweat therapy" and as the pharmacists miraculously pulled down just the right medicine from the myriad on their shelves. He writes lyrically of days spent swimming in the river and playing with improvised toys, as well as escaping an angry elephant and surviving a train wreck that killed almost everyone else in his rail car. He excelled in medical school and hoped to become a surgeon, until a wrist fracture limited his hand movement and turned his path to internal medicine. Soon he emigrated, first to England, then to a small town in frigid Western Canada, and finally to the palm-lined streets of Los Angeles. He established a practice, thrived, and raised a family. When diagnosed with non-Hodgkin's lymphoma at the height of his career, Joseph leaned on his profound faith in God, and he learned that the greatest asset one can have in such an extremity is the loving care of family and friends. His wife, son, and daughter were always there for him, around the clock, and he describes their devoted attention to him. A bone marrow transplant is a harrowing experience, and he went through two. His fortitude in dealing with the grueling treatments is heart-rending and inspirational. Joseph was devastated when he was forced to stop practicing medicine due to his weakened immune system. He found comfort in writing down his innermost feelings and memories. This cathartic exercise developed into his memoir, which he soon realized might resonate with people enduring various challenges in their lives. He reached his goal of finishing this task before his 60th birthday. At his birthday celebration, he delivered a speech thanking family and friends who had stood by him through good times and bad. The following week, a bout of flu turned into pneumonia and he died six weeks later. Despite his extreme trials, Joseph's faith remained unshaken, and he left a legacy of courage and fortitude to all those he touched. His family has fulfilled his wish of publishing his life-story.