Welcome to today's Web chat on: "posttraumatic growth". Our guests are Dr. Rich Tedeschi, professor of psychology at UNC Charlotte. Rich is the nation's premier researcher in this topic. I also owe a personal and professional debt of gratitude to Rich for bringing this terribly important issue to light. And I am equally happy to welcome Carla, the author of the beautiful and insightful letter that got posted on the blog yesterday and was printed in the Inquirer column. Carla and I are "buddies" from the Christopher Reeve webpage. Welcome to both of you.

Carla, we know some details about your history of multiple trauma which includes spinal cord injury, divorce in your first marriage, first husbands nearly successful suicide attempt, death of your grandson from SIDS, and your daughters subsequent bipolar disorder. When you look back on this, the first trauma was probably your husbands suicide attempt. Are you aware of how that might have changed you?

Carla, I was 28 years old when my wife was diagnosed with level 3 melanoma. Of course I was numb and terrified. But in hindsight, my life became more real at that point and I became a different person. More adult, I knew things about life that I hadn't known before and that most people my age didn't know