Patti

I wrote a play when I was six years old where I was the princess and my sister was the prince and the dog, and got the neighborhood kids to watch for a dime.

I designed a house and built it with hand tools with my ex-husband who I taught to swing a hammer.

I swam at night in Long Island Sound among luminescent jellyfish that lit up if you bumped them, it was like swimming in the galaxy.

I visited every week my sister in the schizophrenic ward and tried to know her, see her, as she is.

I lightly kneaded half a cup of butter into two cups of powdery flour with my fingers to make batter for scones while listening to Pink Floyd's The Wall and puzzling how to finish a painting.

Patti, age 57