In November of 1972 my parents emigrated from Israel to the United States, several months prior to my birth in January of 1973. At the age of six my parents were involved in a fatal head-on collision, leaving me without any living relatives and I remained in state custody until my eighteenth birthday. During my first year of college there was a man who began pursuing me for a romantic relationship even though I made it clear that my only interest revolved around finishing my education and had no interest or consideration for any type of romantic involvement.

Three years ago, a friend said something to me that hurt very deeply. I was speechless. I could not believe she could say that and mean it. When I had no response, she said, "I love you and don't want to see you hurt." My thought was, 'if you love me, how could you say such a terrible thing about someone I love dearly'. But I was still speechless and just couldn't respond.

As I look at my bookshelf . . . for the new generation, a bookshelf, usually made out of wood, a device to hold rectangular pieces of paper with words on them that are glued together called books . . . I see a lot of black and yellow. I see, "Windows Vista for Dummies." I see, "Microsoft Office 2007 for Dummies," even, "Aquariums for Dummies." What does that tell you about my character? You're right. I am a dummy and proud of it!

Uncle Louie was loved by his nephews and nieces, by his friends, and everybody that knew him. He worked at different jobs at different parts of his life as I was growing up.

As I was growing up I couldn't remember when Mark wasn't a part of my life. We were in elementary school together, junior high, but we parted in high school. Mark was brilliant throughout school, making straight A's and even A pluses. I hated him! Just kidding.

It was one of those mornings when the multitude of chores was overwhelming. There were several things that I had to do, and one of them was folding clothes; I needed help. I asked my oldest daughter if she would help me. She said, "Sure, I'll help you. I can see that there's no way you can fold all of that laundry without help." She can fold clothes and organize things perfectly.