y father returned home to Jersey City, when his summer-camp job ended, and studied for the Connecticut State Medical Boards. He lived on two meals a day, which he said was "not a real hardship, but more of a mental frustration, because I was in no position to help."

In April, 1933, my grandfather, Frederick Thomas Smith, went to his first wife's burial plot and shot himself in the head, ending his life.

My father never talked about his mother or father's deaths. He reserved a private place in his psyche for his thoughts and feelings about the tragic losses of his parents. Consequently, I can only speculate as to the reasons my grandfather took his life. Certainly, his being unemployed and unable to help his son must have been no small part of the pressure that led the proud, 68-year-old man to pull the trigger.

Frederick Thomas Smith