“How many people here have been touched by cancer?” asked CBS’s Chris Wragge. Hands shot up. In its 18^th year, Hamptons Happening celebrated the simple joys of being alive with the recognition of how, as Dr. Samuel Waxman put it, “Cancer is a disease of aging.” Still, it was a happy moment to know this truism in a beautifully appointed Bridgehampton tent with glamorously dressed Hamptonites some of whom were wearing high heels as they tread across the grass, the property of the Fishel family donated for the annual Samuel Waxman’s Cancer Research Foundation Benefit. 

One of this year’s honorees for “Distinguished Business Leader,” Bess Freedman, CEO of Brown Harris Stevens, took the message one step farther reminding everyone of Tikkun Olam, a Hebrew expression that translates to everyone’s obligation to repair the world, to make it better than it was when we arrived. This message resonates for more than health.

As I do every year when I attend this fun party, I ponder an irony: my mother, the late Pola Weinreich died in the care of this world-renowned oncologist at Mount Sinai in 1996. Should I say something when I see him, remind him of an event commonplace to him and devastating to me? A sign of a good doctor, Samuel Waxman always very much wants to talk about her demise and the deadly disease that he was hoping to cure in his lifetime with the foundation he created so many years ago. “Did we do whatever we could for her,” he asks, caring. “Thank you for coming.”

Amidst the set ups for the silent auction, a live auction was part of the show—a golf weekend for four, a shopping spree at Max Mara for six. Restaurants offered their wares: Barney Greengrass served smoked pastrami and white fish salad on bagels, Union Steak & Sushi, my go-to place in Southampton served sushi rolls, and Centro Trattoria had meatballs in a red sauce; with Arlotta Food Studios’ specialty oils and vinegars, you could make a meal. Clarkson Avenue Crumb Cakes had the best mini-desserts—but then again there were Magnolia cupcakes. Outside, A La Mode’s ice cream truck had nostalgia inducing wafer cones and chocolate covered pops. And then, as I did last year, I had to ponder another irony: Who can resist Chef David Burke with his signature “clothesline bacon?” A carcinogen, no?