One mental health advocate thrives, another fights for his life

If not for Nathaniel Ayers, I probably never would have met Jim Preis, a lawyer, and Vijay Gupta, a violinist.

That’s the kind of journey it has been with Ayers, a homeless skid-row musician I met in 2005. He’s taken me places I’d never been to, like the White House, where he performed at the invitation…