Barry and I met at a Halloween party when we were 13 years old. Neither of us liked our dates, so we chatted outside. We didn’t see each other again until high school, at a Kansas City B’nai B’rith Youth Organization convention where he was a big macher. Jewish/Zionist organizations dominated our junior and senior years—he brought me into Young Judaea, and I brought him into United Synagogue Youth. We began to date, then go steady. We got unofficially "engaged" when I went to university but I broke it off because I didn't want to settle down yet. We got back together and, this time, we got officially engaged, but he broke it off. He felt he wasn't ready. I was devastated. We each went our own ways in marriages, in cities, in life. Barry married another woman. He...

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