Mrs. Leahy returned to Ventnor this week, along with 30 of her nearest and dearest. But instead of staying at the shore home her family built and owned for 75 years, the family stayed across the street, renting the sprawling gray house owned by the Dominican Nuns of Blauvelt, N.Y. (To see why the nuns are now landlords, click here.) Twelve years ago, as taxes rose, new construction blocked their views, and the older generation that united them all had passed along, Mrs. Leahy and her two siblings reluctantly sold the house they loved _ and kept immaculate, summer after summer, from the third floor dormer to the basement, where the lifeguards would come to shower. But as is so often the case with these family heirlooms, the sale, which made sense for all the right reasons, financial and practical, still left a hole in the family's heart _ and summers _ that was not easily filled. And so, twelve years later, Mrs. Leahy is again presiding over dinners for 30 served in a big pan, margaritas on the porch and, no doubt, keeping the nuns' house immaculate. (The new, or no longer that new, owners of her old house have never been able to match the spic and shine of the previous owners, and face it, the geraniums just never bloomed as big.) She declined an offer to go through the house again, though in truth, much of it is still as they left it. But others in the family poked around, approved of the newly paved driveway and the rosebushes out front, as they tried to recreate the old sense of family togetherness and contentedness that is a shore house's true gift. From the view across the street, it seems clear they succeeded. And so we say, welcome back to Dorset Avenue, Mrs. Leahy and family. Come back anytime.