We had tickets to every Broadway show, we went to great restaurants, and we were treated like royalty. We had a good life. He was part of The Greatest Generation. He went to war as a captain in his early twenties and fought in Europe and the Phillipines. He came home and eventually married my mother—who he had loved since high school—and started a family. I think he would have preferred to hold off on that, but my mother became pregnant on their honeymoon.

He loved his family and was committed to us. He was a wonderful grandfather, and my children adored him. He had more friends than anyone I have ever known. Anywhere he went in the world, he always met someone he knew. We had a complicated relationship, good times and bad. I was his first child, and I know he wanted a boy. He was often hard on me, but I loved him with all my heart. I miss him so much.