My love of the ocean began when I was five years old.  We were living on Long Beach Island in southern New Jersey. I was diagnosed with Perthes disease which affects the hip joint.  In those days the only treatment was immobility.  So, for the next two years I alternated between six months in bed, six months in a wheelchair, and then months on crutches.  Out the window next to my bed I could see the ocean and hear the waves.  I whiled the time away with reading and writing little stories.