Deedee. In 1954 I went to Camp Marlin for the summer (my second year). On the last night of camp—just before the banquet—I started to feel pain in my stomach. Everyone dismissed it as excitement and nerves. But by the time we were going to bed I was in real pain, and spent the night in the infirmary. When my parents came to get me, we went right to the hospital in Freeport where I had an emergency appendectomy. My parents had spent the summer re-doing my room as a huge surprise, and they were afraid I might never see it. After a week in the hospital, I went home to the perfect girl’s room: my father had papered the ceiling with a wonderful flower print, my beds had white chintz covers and dust ruffles that matched the paper. They had put in a vanity table that had a skirt that also matched—and curtains that completed the look. I loved that room.