Mom & Daddy were Shifrin family cousins - far, far removed of course but trace way back to the same patriarch. They were married about 5 years when I was born. Just 18 months later, after the birth of a second child, they separated & eventually divorced. Like 2 ships in the night, they were so utterly different. Daddy was a traveler, a reader, a quiet man content with a few close friends. Mom, on the other hand, was a busy woman, a hard worker, always on the go, very sociable, who loved to dance & sing, & in her latter years, her charitable work. Two very different folks living at different ends of the US - both of whom I dearly loved.