Patricia ByrnesI was born and grew up in New York City. I lived in three of the five boroughs: Manhattan, Brooklyn and Queens. In Washington Heights, Manhattan, there was a concentration of Irish and Italian immigrants, and just around the corner was Harlem with th African American population. As a matter of fact, the street where I lived was all Caucasian on one side and all African American on the other, and if you walked five streets west, you were in the Jewish neighborhood. Until I was in my teens, this mixture prevailed until the Latins started moving in; today, Washington Heights is all Latin. I was fortunate to have been exposed to this diversity, although everyone stayed in his/her specific designated area. My parents were first generation Irish and Italian, and because we lived with our Italian grandparents, our exposure was stronger towards that ethnicity. I am the child of deaf parents - my father was also an alcoholic, and my mother suffered from depression. We lived with both poverty and a grandfather who was a tyrant too cheap to convert the house we lived in to have heat and hot water. I know full well what it's like to wash my hands and face every morning with cold water and to live in a cold, damp house. We also had no bathroom; a closet in the hallway with a commode and flusher was the extent of our bathroom. I didn't see a tub until I was fourteen and we moved to subsidized housing in Queens. Living in compromise was something my family and I were very familiar with. When I share my growing-up years with people, they usually find it hard to believe. I'm sure there are many people who also lived without hot water and heat, but probably not in New York City! In addition to these inconveniences, there will probably be many people who identify with having parents who were "different," such as those who are immigrants, which has its own challenges. My hope is for people to see the resilience and see themselves in this book. Read More Read Less