“After 61 years of marriage, Charles D. Snelling killed his Alzheimer's-stricken wife before turning a gun on himself. Months before, in response to a David Brooks column, he submitted a 5,000-word personal essay where he reminisced on his life, his marriage, his wife's disease and his role as a caretaker.” - × × ×

David Brooks: The Life Report — http://www.nytimes.com/2011... - × × ×

“The Life Report: Charles Darwin Snelling — The following Life Report was submitted in response to my column of Oct. 28, in which I asked readers over 70 to write autobiographical essays evaluating their own lives.” — http://brooks.blogs.nytimes.com/2011... - × × ×