y father had put together a number of the pieces of the life, both personal and professional, that he wanted for himself. He had opened his practice, had continued his training in the Yale medical clinics, had purchased an office with an apartment above it, and had bought the beach house in Milford.

But an essential element was missing.

He was a family doctor without a family.

He yearned for a partner with whom he could share his life and raise a family.

wo years after his divorce, my father stopped in to see a couple in Harlem, who were friends of his.

While he was there, they took him upstairs in the apartment house they lived in and introduced him to a young woman who was visiting from South Carolina.