Sara-Ann Determan
June 16, 2005; December 6, 2005; December 12, 2005; March 8, 2006;
May 30, 2006; November 15, 2006; December 13, 2006
Recommended
Citation
Transcript of Interview with Sara-Ann Determan (June 16, 2005; Dec. 6,
2005; Dec. 12, 2005; Mar. 8, 2006; May 1, 2006; May 30, 2006; Nov. 15,
2006; Dec. 13, 2006), https://abawtp.law.stanford.edu/exhibits/show/saraann-
determan.
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But in a way for me, that was even worse – and I’ve since talked to other
people and this is not at all unusual – because that didn’t have the sense that it
would truly end. I think of that, looking back at the time as kind of a gray
period — a sense that this could be what the rest of my life was going to be.
That it wasn’t unendurable, and it wasn’t totally without pleasure and joy, but
it certainly wasn’t the components of pleasure and joy that I’d associated with
most of my life. But little by little it got better. I had a hysterectomy at the end
of the year — yet another nonevent that took me out of the firm for a while.
But by the end of the year and the beginning of the next year, I was feeling like
I could be me again. And that I had learned so much, and the memories of
Stevie started to be the funny stories, and eventually, you come to a sense of
how lucky you were to have had him for twelve and a half years. And your
other children have their own needs, including David who was still in bad
shape – death of a brother and an absent mother and a father who had left. And
I was dragged into reality. The firm obviously, I felt and I’m sure accurately,
was still patient with whatever my needs were. But I was very eager to get
back to work. And so by ’85 I was back largely doing what I did. And, as I
think I’ve said before, at any given time in my career, with the exception of
maybe a two-year period, there has always been one big matter that seems to
monopolize my time. Never exclusively – I’ve never been so unlucky as to
have only one thing going at a time. I really don’t remember what it was
during that period. Typically, they were very large estate tax controversies
with the Revenue Service. Actually, I do remember, because I was working —

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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