I'm not the angry, rebellious child that I was. You can remain a child for a long time. I certainly did. I was a slow learner.

America had taken my father from me. And over most of the years of his illness, I gradually started feeling this support system from this country who-people grieving along with us.

You have to separate yourself from your parents. You do. In order to find yourself.

The thing about losing any loved one, I think, particularly in a long disease, is that you know that other people have gone through it and are going through it, but I think for every person it feels unique.

And as far as false hope, there is no such thing. There is only hope or the absence of hope - nothing else.

Politics isn't what defines a person, and it shouldn't define a relationship. I made the mistake of letting that intrude on my relationships.

I often imagine what it would be like if my father were still here to mark his 100th birthday, if Alzheimer's hadn't clawed away years, possibilities, hopes. What would he think of all the commemorations and celebrations?