Mary E. McDermott, a 13th-generation Cape Codder living in Orleans, is the author of Salt in the Veins and Old Orleans: Memories of a Cape Cod Town. She worked for 17 years in the Orleans Assessor's Office and 23 years as a commercial insurance broker at Pike Insurance Agency. She has been a justice of the peace to solemnize marriages since 1976 and has previously published two books of poetry, Tapestry and Handle with Care. Her poems have appeared in several publications including the Christian Science Monitor.