My sister Christy was operated on for cancer on February eighth in Miami. She is married, 30, & has a baby girl, Carly who will be a year old next month.

She wrote me on the nineteenth of February: "Geoff--just wanted you to know that I love you very much, even if I do tease you from time to time. I guess it takes something like what happened to me to make a person realize how much other people mean to that person...."

I responded the day before yesterday: "Your last letter was most touching. One can see what families are all about when we have a crisis. That's what's silly about so many modern ideas concerning family. Life is hard enough without isolating us further from each other."