Yeah, back in the day. . . . Were we ever really that young, once? I used to try setting my hair with juice cans to make it flat! Thanks for your thoughts.

I too went to my 40th high school reunion and had many of the experiences you chronicle. A high point was meeting one of my best high school friends as I walked down the hotel corridor to my room–she screamed my name and dragged me by the hand to the near-by room where my other best friend was waiting for us and we started gabbing as if no time had elapsed . . . in spite of all the lights and shadows of the lives we’d passed through.

However, since I am privileged not to be struggling with an awful disease, I did not have the experience of meeting someone else whose life it has touched. How very poignant for you. I surely know what you mean about the somber reflections induced by the fall season and the Jewish High Holydays. It is good for us to have these thoughts. Good for our souls.