Jayne’s Birthday 2009

Jayne Jayne, or “Mom” to our daughters, would have been 56 today.

We met in November 1981, on a blustery evening, at Mickey's Bar, in Manhattan’s TriBeCa, and got married six weeks later, in Manhattan's City Hall.

Jayne was the most intelligent person I ever met. We were attracted to each other immediately. She used to say that I was smarter than anyone she met in medical school, except for a fellow named Monty, who dropped out of medical school to become a professional surfer.

I never met Monty, who supposedly moved to Hawaii, although Jayne made several attempts to locate him.

Jayne and I constantly encouraged each other to learn new stuff. I studied computer programming at NYU for six weeks (long story), and she entered an anesthesiology residency at St. Vincent's Hospital. Jayne was the last American to complete this residency in two years, before the requirements were changed.

Playing Pool

Shortly after our marriage, Jayne and I decided to become better pool (pocket billiards) players.

First, we bought a used, eight foot, Brunswick Heirloom pool table, from Ron Blatt, of Blatt Billiards, for our living room. Then we studied Willie Mosconi On Pocket Billiards, and practiced until we were able to win a few tournaments at the Raccoon Lodge on Warren Street, two blocks East of Mickey's Bar.

Raccoon Lodge, named after the fraternal organization in The Honeymooners, was opened by three of the bartenders from Mickey's, after Mickey's closed in early 1982.

We were known as “the newlyweds” at Raccoon Lodge, until we regrettably gave up our rent-controlled apartment, on Riverside Drive, and moved to Georgia, in 1986.

We moved several more times, to Fort Lauderdale, Atlanta, and finally to Bedford, New York, in Westchester County, before a 1995 divorce.

More About Jayne

For more about Jayne, read what I wrote on her last two birthdays, in 2007, and 2008. I promise to write more about her in the future, because nobody changed my life as much as her.

Jayne also saved my life, after a horrific car accident in 1986.

Jayne died in 2004.