GRIT - Stories of Resilience

Whether leaving southern California for a Yale education, to a lucrative partnership as a big time litigator in a major New York law firm, to leaving it all and starting over again in Wilmington, North Carolina as a sole practitioner in Estates Practice, two character traits guide his life - an innate sense of optimism and his faith, nurtured by time as the years have gone by. It is impossible to...

While the first part of this episode dealing with Mental Health and Depression challenges continues with some stumbling on my part, the fall and early winter brings the beginning of recovery and starting over. Having said no to suicide and resolved to better myself and just get through it all, I plead guilty to any and all charges against me, with no deal, get an active sentence, write a book, mak...

Duke Psychiatric Hospital - my home for a week. Therapy sessions with my doctor sometimes twice a week. Asking me questions such as when was the last time in my life I was carefree and happy, followed by what in my life was in technicolor and what was in black and white. If all this was not enough, I learned in mid July, 1993, that I was going to be indicted by a Grand Jury. I did not want to go t...

This is the beginning of a story of someone who rose very high, fell very low in a very public way, and survived. It is also the story of mental illness in general and depression in particular and the treatment that was necessary to get well and have a second chance in life. This Episode is Part One, the beginning of it all. It happened many years ago, but of course it seems like yesterday. It is...

For more than sixty years in Eastern North Carolina, if you got in trouble, better call Allen Thomas in Wilson. Here, he tells what he believes and how he has done it all these years, including the time, now long ago, when he faced a serious challenge to his own life and career. It wasn't easy, but using the lessons of a lifetime, including truth and a willingness to honorably do whatever it t...

Chris Corchiani met his first basketball when he was three years old, dribbling under the tutelage of his Dad and eventual high school coach. He went on to play four successful years at NC State, making his name as Fire in the duo of Fire and Ice with his teammate Rodney Monroe, going to the NCAA Tournament three straight years, leaving school as the first person ever to make 1,000 assists in a ca...

In the early morning hours of February 17, 1970, time stopped at 544 Castle Drive on Ft. Bragg, North Carolina, when the family of Green Beret Doctor and Captain in the Army, Jeffrey MacDonald was brutally murdered. MacDonald was the sole survivor. His wife, Colette, and two daughters, Kimberly and Kristen, were dead. MacDonald claimed hippie intruders killed his family. Not long after the investi...