Fred and Margarite Franitza, who bought the house on Long Island from my parents. Thank you for welcoming me into your home over the years. Revisiting the Dream House helped trigger many important memories from my youth.
Lloyd Harbor Elementary School. Thank you to Celia McGann for helping arrange my visit, and to Phil Gray, assistant principal, and Valerie Massimo, principal, for taking the time to speak with me. Thank you to Annette DiPietro for the school records. Your students are lucky to have such a devoted staff and beautiful environment in which to learn and grow. Visiting the school was incredibly helpful—it brought back some important memories and gave me some much-needed closure.
Fay Krupski. I’m so thankful for your friendship during my childhood years. I’m equally grateful that I was able to speak with you during the process of writing this book.
The Cold Spring Harbor High School Reunion. It was wonderful to reconnect with friends from middle school, including Diana Stusvick, Gail Calumet, Kristin Hamlin, and Jeff Springsteen. Through Facebook I was able to connect with many of my sister Robin’s friends, including Donna Wellman, Claudia Wellman, and Jean Williamson Carter.
My father’s friends Roger Yussain, Ross Muerer, Diahn and Tom McGrath, and Jan Royal. Thank you for your valuable insights.
Chendo Perez. We met at a time when I desperately needed to be part of a family and have someone to love. Thank you for sharing your memories of my mother and of our time together while I was researching this book.
Skip Denenberg. You were such an important part of my sister Robin’s life and like a brother to me all those years ago. It means the world to me that we have reconnected.
Ruthie Berman. Thank you for being such a good friend to Robin and for sharing your memories of her.
A special thank-you to Haven, Ted, Gil, and Wil Colgate for including me in their mother Marlene’s eightieth birthday celebration on the same beach where we used to play as children. I am grateful that I was able to spend time with Marlene.
To the people who took care of my mother along the way, I wish I could personally thank each one of you from the bottom of my heart. There was a family of helpers out there, even if I didn’t always know it at the time.
Thank you to social worker Susan Goodman, who worked with my mother at the Park Avenue Armory, for deepening my understanding of my mother during her years there.
I am so grateful to the nurses at Medford Multicare, Brookhaven Hospital, and Sachem Adult Home for the loving care my mother received while she was there.
I thank the many women and mentors who filled the holes my mother left behind.
My dear friend Stephanie Schwartz. Thank you for listening to me daily as the story unfolded, encouraging me every step of the way, and for connecting me with so many important people. Shortly before Eve contacted me, I had made a very impassioned post on Facebook honoring Bill Barnes, a hero to me. (Bill is the executive director of the Clearview School, a school for emotionally disturbed children that my daughter attended for eleven years and where I had also served as vice president.) This post prompted you to call me and encouraged me to pursue my passion of mental health advocacy. You connected me with Audrey Brooks at the Mental Health Association of Westchester, an organization that has become an inspiration to me.
Audrey Brooks. In our first meeting, you asked if I had ever thought of writing a memoir, and later if my husband and I would chair the organization’s 2015 Run/Walk in support of mental health advocacy, which we did. Thank you for your encouragement.
Doris Schwartz, former COO of the MHA of Westchester. You have served as a mentor to me in many ways. Your example and dedication have deepened my commitment to mental health advocacy. I am so grateful for the time you have given me.
Karen and Joel Berman. Thank you for helping me to obtain a copy of the 1993 Hard Copy episode featuring my mother. Thank you to CTD Clip Licensing Group for providing that episode so I could watch it again.
Cathy Nish. Thank you for connecting us with Tony Monaco, the current manager of the Barbizon building on East Sixty-third Street. Tony, thank you for taking us on the tour of the former hotel. It was just wonderful to be inside the building, to walk out on its terraces, to learn of its history, and to stand on the floor near the rooms where Grace and my mother lived. It was especially valuable for us to have the original floor plan of the hotel.
I did not set out to focus on my mother’s diagnosis, but this aspect became a very important part of the story. I am so grateful to have been able to share my mother’s story with Dr. Jeffrey Lieberman, Dr. Diana Lynn Barnes, Dr. Dominic Grecco, and Ariane Sroubik. Your input was simply invaluable, adding to my understanding of my mother in ways I could have never predicted when I began my research. Thank you for the gift of your time and your expertise.
My therapist, Ginger Benlifer. Writing this book has been one of the most difficult things I have ever done, bringing on daily tears as I allowed myself to feel the sadness of my mother’s life and to relive painful events that I had long suppressed. Toward the end of writing you helped me to talk through so many difficult memories. I don’t think I could have gotten through it without your guidance.
Many authors have inspired me along the way—Andrew Solomon, Patrick Kennedy, and Regina Calcaterra. The honesty with which you shared your stories gave me the confidence to tell mine. I have seen the results of your work and the wonderful things that have come out of your desire to help others.
I have been
