Here’s a huge thanks to the army of great women who helped me through the past several years and made this book happen. They have fed, taught, encouraged and inspired me with unstinting generosity.
My good friend and writer Pamela Redmond Satran was the first to make me think I might be able to pull off something longer than a newspaper series. This project was a hazy glimmer of an idea until she took me out to lunch one day and said, “Let’s talk about your book.” Just hearing those words made it sound possible.
Then Pam brought me to a party where I met the indefatigable Laurie Lico Albanese. Laurie, a novelist, mentioned she taught a college course on writing memoir, and she agreed on the spot to teach me too. And so for many months I spent Wednesday nights in Laurie’s attic with two other women learning how to spin small moments into personal narratives. Those hours of empathy, sidesplitting laughter and occasional tears sustained me through that first uncertain year as a widow. When the future looked so blank, Laurie’s warmth, humor and conviction that I could finish a manuscript gave me a sense of purpose. Even more, we became close friends.
My loyal friends from high school and college took the baton. When I was dithering about whether and how to look for an agent, they urged me on. Profound thanks to Lisa Noveck Buseck, Susan Briggs, Claudia Meininger Gold, Linda Schupack, Alexandra Shelley and Nancy Youman. Maggie Jackson and Lynn Novick went way beyond the call—more on them later.
My savvy, tenacious and wonderfully caring agent, Judith Ehrlich, willed this book into print. Her faith in this project and dedication to details were deeply moving. Sophia Seidner, her colleague at Judith Ehrlich Literary Management, added her keen intuition and skills. Thanks also to my publisher, Tracy Ertl, who was excited by the manuscript from her first reading and welcomed me into the TitleTown fold.
At The Record, my compassionate editors Susan DeSantis and Deirdre Sykes gave me the flexibility my family needed. My fellow reporters Patricia Alex, Mary Jo Layton and Lindy Washburn made coming to work fun, thanks to their talent, irreverence and hilarious lunchtime updates.
My book group has been a rock for more than a decade. Somehow I brought more than my share of drama to our monthly meetings. Here’s a toast to Jean-Marie Menk, Cindy Carlson, Marcia George, Sheri Karvelas, Nancy Kopilnick, Sue McKeown, Frazer O’Neill, Tracy Parsons and Nancy Tortoriello.
I hope these women never find themselves in circumstances where they need my support the way that I needed theirs. But if they do, I hope I will be there for them the way they were always there for me.
It’s time to add a few men to the mix. Several couples were stalwarts and figured out ways to help us before we even knew what we needed. My deepest appreciation to Lynn Novick and Robert Smith; Pam and Dick Satran; Maggie Jackson and John Hitchcock; Mary Ellen Schoonmaker and Mike Hoyt; and Celia Radek and Larry Engelstein.
Elliot’s colleagues at Bloomberg News were incredibly sensitive to his needs, while his book group buddies cheered him on and distracted him with their ridiculous rescheduling rituals.
Special thanks to the fantastic friends of Devon and Alex, especially the families of Diana Lawson and Jack Ross, who gave my kids another set of warm, loving and endlessly entertaining homes when they needed a refuge. We are so lucky to have you.
Thanks as well—for an array of reasons—to Helen Pinsley, Anastasia Rubis, Sallie Scherer, Anthony Brinton, Janet Wicka, Milo Geyelin and our neighbors at the top of our hill.
On the medical front, we were very fortunate to get help from the expert, extremely hard-working staff at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, especially Dr. David Kelsen and his nurse, Jenny Jenkins.
My mother, Jackie Brody; sister, Jessica Nagy; and her family of Lee, Summer and Ernie have stuck by me with care and generosity, helped me raise my kids, and always made sure they wore sunscreen.
There are not enough words to express my gratitude to my father, Gene Brody, whose confidence in me meant so much.
Needless to say, I wish Elliot could be here and could read what amounts to a last love letter. I wish he could see how well our kids are doing and what they’ve become. I wish he could meet his first grandchild, a gorgeous baby girl named Juniper.
I couldn’t be more proud of them.
The biggest thanks of all go to Alex, Devon, Max, Kate and Aaron.