When my daughter Augie and I left St. Johns to visit the first of her friends from the Palisades to have a baby she said to me, “ You and your friends are like the mafia, mom.  You’re such a close group and you always have each other’s back and the backs of each other’s kids.  It’s amazing.  I like it.”

The remark stunned me.  She’s right.  We are a tight group.   This is not something that was role-modeled, as my own mother had very few friends.  On the other hand, my father had more associates than Don Corleone. (more…)