5 FOREWORD The dining room was always for special occasions. When Mom put out the table pads and lit up the chandelier, it meant something important and memorable was going to happen. That’s how it felt on the grey February morning when Jerry and I sat down at the dining room table to write this book. He retrieved his black briefcase from the den and proudly pulled out a white legal pad with dog edged pages written in his surprisingly neat handwriting. “Okay Mahjorie,” he said in his charming, distinctly recognizable North Shore accent, “Let’s do this.” What you are about to read is told by Jerry in his words. Of course, given that Jerry and Abbe raised a family of “Type A-ers,” we have each contributed our own point of view, here and there. We started the book in February of 2016 and he’d given us a deadline of August 30th to be finished. I think he thought we would polish the final draft on the deck at the Cape as the sun set over Lake Wequaquet. Unfortunately, he only made it to May. We know that he would’ve wanted us to finish what he started. “Okay Jerry, let’s do this.”