We’ve all had life-changing experiences. My first, and most impactful, happened when I was too young to have memory.

In 1956, I was diagnosed with spinal meningitis when I was two and a half years old. We lived in small-town Ohio where the undertaker doubled as the ambulance driver. I was rushed to the nearest large children’s hospital and put in isolation. Two other children were also hospitalized with the same infection. They died within days. As a last-ditch effort, doctors drilled three burr...