Note: My memories of 1948: In May, my father, Wilfred Goodman, died unexpectedly from a heart attack. It was the same day that Israel became a state (I discovered this later), May 18th, 1948. A few weeks after wards, my older brother Joel graduated from the US Merchant Marine Academy in Great Neck, Long Island, NY. Instead of becoming an Ensign in the Navy, he returned to Maine to run the family business with my mother, Elsie Goodman. I turned 10 a few weeks later. Our lives changed but our love for Israel always remained strong: Babs Shapiro