My brother, Judd, and I shared our youth together.  From his childhood, he was a romantic who enjoyed life pursuing his education and dreams of the future until adulthood where these dreams were interrupted by the Vietnam War leaving our lives going in different directions.  He moved to Canada and found joy and a sense of accomplishment being a father to a daughter who is now an adult and in his work with First Nations tribal groups.  However, in his personal life, he felt unfulfilled, and after retiring he moved overseas to an island in Asia where he hoped to begin a new life.  However, he felt increasingly socially and emotionally isolated; and after a fall that left him incapacitated, he entered a world of darkness and sorrow from which he did not recover.  The photo “Judd” is a self portrait by him from that period.  It conveys his loss of dignity and the sadness in losing control over his life due to his physical and mental conditions and an abusive environment that left him with insufficient medical care. This led to further decline in his health and being confined to a bed in a windowless room where he was consumed by thoughts of the past having given up on the future.  Eventually, his ability to communicate was reduced to disjointed verbal snippets not grounded in reality as his body and mind deteriorated.  His suffering ended on September 20, 2025 when he died at age 81. Click link for larger image in new window.