The following is an excerpt from my book, “Irene and Abe: An Unexpected Life.”

As lifelong, ardent Democrats, we were delighted when
Bill Clinton was elected president and the party returned
to power.
We were delighted on a personal level too, because, by that
time, we knew the Clintons. I had been part of the group who
had interviewed him (and then later backed him) when Pamela
Harriman’s “Democrats for the 80s” was deciding which candidate
to support. Abe and I had contributed to his campaign and attended
many of his speeches.

“How does it feel to be here?” I asked President Clinton one
night when he had only been in office a couple of months and was
giving us a tour around the White House.
“I still can’t believe it,” he said.
An ardent basketball fan, Bill Clinton came to a lot of games
with us after he became president. Hillary came with him to
a Chicago game, but he was the more constant fan. He credited
his extensive knowledge of basketball to insomnia. He slept little,
he explained, and watched just about all the games he could find
on television.

Since Abe had always shunned the fancy “sky suites” we’d built
at Capital Centre (which was renamed USAir Arena in 1993) because
they were too far away from the action, we watched the games in
the stands along with everyone else. No one enjoyed mixing with
the other spectators more than Bill Clinton. This was the biggest
“people person” I’d ever met. Sitting in the fourth row with us, he
engaged anyone and everyone near him in conversation, teasing
and joking and happily posing for pictures, and even volunteering
to take pictures for those who asked him. He was a lot of fun.
One night when he came to the game, the Secret Service brought
in a huge cardboard box, which they put on the floor in front of his
seat. It was filled with soft drinks and snacks, and the next thing
we knew, there was the President of the United States offering its
contents to all the people sitting around him. Did he forget that he
was the President of the United States? He was a natural politician.

Soon after they moved into the White House, we were invited
to an informal dinner party that happened to be on my birthday.
It was in a lower-level dining room with about five tables of eight
people. I was seated at Bill’s table. Toward the end of the meal, a
birthday cake was brought in to my surprise, and everyone sang
“Happy Birthday, Irene!” I was stunned and flattered. Was I really
that important?

–From “Irene and Abe: An Unexpected Life,” available from Amazon at this link.

The following is an excerpt from my book, “Irene and Abe: An Unexpected Life.”

Sometimes it was hard to reconcile my daytime and my
evening activities. During the day, I quietly sat in my chair facing
each patient, one on one, as a non threatening therapist, using the
language of the medical and psychiatric worlds.
My night was the total opposite from the minute I stepped
into the noisy, throbbing, lights-flashing building that was Capital
Centre. I usually sat next to Abe watching our teams win and
lose, and then deal occasionally with the celebrities who came to
perform. Ordinarily, we did not meet and greet them, but some—
like Frank Sinatra—demanded more attention than the President.
The first time Frank Sinatra came to perform in our building, he
insisted that Abe and I meet him officially before the concert and
be there when his limousine pulled up to the entrance to welcome
him amidst press fanfare, with photographer flash bulbs going off.
The problem was that the arena was circular and there were four
different, equal entrances. Each time we approached a designated
entrance his car was at another one. The result became a circus.
We kept going round and round on the inside of the building as
his limo went round and round on the outside. We wondered
what was causing the problem, and discovered that every time he
approached an entrance and there weren’t enough reporters, he
would tell the driver to go to the next one.

Finally, Abe and I had had it.

We were about to give up when Sinatra finally found an
entrance he liked and got out of the car.

We were not too warm and kissy at that point.

–From “Irene and Abe: An Unexpected Life,” available from Amazon at this link.

Of course, it felt good to complete my book and receive some nice reviews on Amazon and several other places, but running into some of the readers in person and discussing the book has also given me some interesting insight.  Whenever I have met someone, often friends (men and women, who have completed the book), I ask what as a man, or as a woman, they found especially interesting.

I have been very surprised at the answers.

Now, maybe because I am a woman, I begin with my own biases, still I really didn’t expect the answers I got.

So, here we are.  The men — almost every single one — were deeply moved, some to the point of tears, at the story of my children.  And I thought they would talk about the Michael Jordan incident!

You guys, I learned, are softies.  And I loved it; Abe was…and so was my Dad.

The women, on the other hand, all asked me how I was able to compromise myself to my husband’s work.

What?

They missed the point of the book; Abe and I were equal partners!  We shared!  I never felt that I was sacrificing anything.  Sometimes I felt that I went to a lot of games but I never resented being there – if I felt that way, I wouldn’t have gone.

But, these responses are quite interesting and enlightening –  another reason I’m glad I wrote the book!

Thanks, Robert and Sigrid!