Nina or is it Edith?

Nina was the sister that I wanted to emulate. She was a child of the roaring 20's. A flapper. Even though she was from a small down in Wyoming when she married my uncle Fred and went to live in San Franciso she began speaking with an English accent. I was impressed. She dressed smartly and was very sophisticated to my young mind. She smoked and that's what I wanted to do. She and Fred would have two martinis and a dividend (what was left in the shaker) before dinner. Once I spent a week with them in San Francisco after I graduated from the University and they took me to the Top of the Mark for cocktails. I loved being with them. Their relationship with each other represented to me what a marriage could be like. They had fun together, lived well, were affectionate with each other and laughed a lot. Of course, they had no children. Later they did have a daughter when Nina was in her 40's.

When Nina was dying with lung cancer I visited her in the hospital in Provo, Utah. She couldn't talk as she was breatheing through a hole in her throat. Fred had died earlier. He had cancer in his arm. It was amputated but that did not save him from metastisis. How very sad. I appreciate having known and loved them.