The last of the four children have taken their wives, husbands and darling offspring home off-Island until next summer. It took the usual two days to get the house straightened up before any real cleaning could be done. Miraculously it does not look like anyone left something important behind this year that would require a trip to the post office by this tired grandmother of five.

Once upon a time I would have been the perfect contestant on The Price Is Right. Bob Barker would walk up to a woman in the audience and offer $50 if she had an elephant in her bag. It would have only taken me a few seconds to rummage and come up with the three-inch elephant that was part of my son’s Bronx Zoo set. I always had that elephant ready to amuse one child if we were caught in traffic, or if one of the other children was in the orthodontist’s chair.