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My father was gone when I was three years old.

My father suffered much and toiled painfully all his life, for he had no resources other than the proceeds of his trade from which to support himself and his wife and family.

My father was a small-town banker. He became very ill when I was 10 years old, and we went to California three years later in an attempt to recover his health, which never happened.

I had a very angry father and was disconnected from my family.

Losing my father at a tender age was extremely important in being able to accept what happened to me later when I became a quadriplegic.

While this has been a private part of my family's life, it is now clear a media story will soon emerge. My father tragically ended his life while battling terminal cancer in 1979.

My father, who was jailed for stealing on more than one occasion, just abandoned his fatherly responsibilities and disappeared. I grew up working from the time I was nine years of age. Money was a big issue everywhere I lived.

My dad died of a stroke.

Upon the death of my father, our family and myself were emotionally and financially exhausted.

My mother left my father in their late 60s.