Summary

Dr. Atul Gawande grew up in a healthy family. His parents were both doctors and immigrants from India. They were raising Atul and his sister in Athens, Ohio. The only elderly person he knew as a youngster was the elderly woman down the street he gave him piano lessons. In college, he met his girlfriend's 77-year-old grandmother, Alice Hobson, on Christmas break 1985. His girlfriend, Kathleen, would eventually become Atul's wife. Alice grew up on a the family's flower farm in Pennsylvania. Alice and her siblings were the first in the family to go to college.

Alice met her husband, Richmond Hobson at the University of Delaware. He was an engineering student. They couldn't afford to get married for six years after meeting because of the Great Depression. They had two sons, Jim and Chuck. Rich worked for the Army Corps of Engineers involved with...