A Life With PTSD: An Autobiography from Santa Cruz California

I was a young eighteen year old when sixteen mature men plan- ned and carried out my premeditated murder by cremation. At age forty-three I was diagnosed with emphysema after smoking thirty years. Had twelve more accidents or injuries that could have killed me! Kay Peterson, my mentor started, Escapees RV Club (Members are extended family members.) with Joe, her husband. An accomplished writer of both non-fiction and fiction. Kay told me to write this. With PTSD it was impossible. So I did write this. Despite going through needs to be recluse. Having agoraphobia, & feeling alien, with my Maria, service dog. Life is opportunity. Grateful, understatement! Lucky, absolutely! My greatest need is you, my fellow man/woman. The humane and human world of which, I am a member. In order by age, my occupations after quitting school were: laundry worker, sign writer, crash rescue fireman, …during the Cold War (disabled, 2011), maintenance man …(Wall Street; David Rockefeller’s floor of the Chase Manhattan Bank.) Washington, D. C. cop… during the turbulent 60s… (retired disabled, 1971) suicide prevention, youth counselor, marriage counselor, massage therapist, hospice volunteer visitor, California realtor, eBay seller, and the most horrible and re- warding, in retrospect, caregiver to my dying wife.