In 1950s Jewish Boston, Ma was a hooker and at age six, I was answering the front door for johns. Kids were forbidden to play with me and even the Girl Scouts asked me to leave. Daddy barely functioned. My lesbian sister "came out," was thrown into a convent, and committed to a mental hospital. Add to that; shoplifting, stolen cars, Ma's multiple boyfriends, a terminally ill husband, and widowhood at age 37. I am no longer a hostage to my past. To paraphrase William Ernest Henley, I have become the "master of my fate and the captain of my soul."