I recall several things my dad did for me...

Parents can be very supportive. While I was growing up, I remember lipsynching songs with my best friend using a hairbrush as a microphone. So, I was dreaming of becoming a megastar, a famous singer. My mother is very musical. One of my middle names is after a famous singer. So, naturally, I thought I'd grow up to be a famous singer. Ha. Well, remember when I told you that when I turned 11-12, reality struck? That's when I realized that I couldn't sing worth a whit. Who am I kidding? Why in the world should I be able to sing? Now that made me kind of depressed. I remember my dad trying to cheer me up by introducing a sound level meter, so that I could "see" my voice. I had a blast seeing the line going up and down according to the pitch I made. I was seeing sound. That was fun. There was hope for me yet!

My parents were both M.D.'s. So naturally I dreamed of becoming an M.D. But how was I to hear the stethoscope? My dad had a solution! He told me that there were amplified stethoscopes that could help me.

Another one, I was 12, and I got to fly in a glider. I loved it. The landing was scary, though. But gliding through the air in a plane with no engine was wonderful! So I told my dad that I wanted to learn how to fly a glider. But you couldn't learn to fly in a glider until you were 15. I asked my dad "But how can I hear the commands that the people on the ground give me?" My dad was dreaming up some kind of a rigged mechanism where I could read the spoken word. See, my dad's full of ideas.

I believe at one time he even had written down an idea for a better hearing aid - a programmable digital hearing aid! And that was before programmable digital hearing aids were even made.

My dad's an inventor, obviously. I think he even had an idea for a medical intervention for premature babies.

So, my father tried to help me as much as he could, encourage me as much as he could. He's a good guy.

Both my parents have patents in the medical field. When is it MY turn? I suspect I'll never ever be able to patent anything. I'm not very inventive. However, my son is very inventive. I suspect he'll have a patent some day :-)