May 1975 - May 2010 I first met Betti in a laundry room in the basement of an apartment building in North Vancouver where we both lived. She had moved into the apartment opposite mine a few weeks before. My first impression was one of a tall, elegant blond with a faint foreign accent. After we chatted for a while I invited her to come to a Tupperware party (or some such thing) which I was hosting for a friend. She accepted, cordially, but stated quite categorically that she wouldn’t be buying anything. That was her nature and I immediately appreciated her directness. A short time later she invited me to drive down to Bellingham, a small town just south of the Canadian border, to do some shopping. When we got to the border-crossing at Peace Arch there was a long line-up of vehicles. As we were sitting chatting she casually said, “I’ve always wanted to smuggle something over the border.” “Oh what” I asked “grass?” (Remember this was the 70’s). “Oh no she replied diamonds. Nobody would ever know if this was the first time.” Well, when we both presented our landed immigrant papers at the border, we were asked to pull over and present ourselves at a small office building where the border guards insisted that we tip out all the contents of our handbags. Meanwhile others were going through Betti’s car with a fine tooth comb! Finally, grudgingly, we were allowed to go. “Well,” I asked “Do you still want to smuggle something over the border?” We had a huge laugh about it. Another thing I remember about Betti was that she was fluent in several languages. However she sometimes mixed words up. I recall that once when we were playing tennis she said, “Could you please move that ball – it’s sphynxing me!” Obviously what she meant was, “It’s jinxing me.” We shared much laughter together. She was a wonderful lady and lived life to the fullest. I know that she had no regrets at the end and hope that the end was relatively painless. I was happy that I was able to speak with her during her last two weeks at Karin’s. Betti, my friend, you will live forever in my heart. Margaretx