With so many special memories of my times with Ginny, I find it hard to narrow it down to one or two so have decided to relay an “I Love Lucy” incident she shared with her co-workers.

With Don being a manager at Martin Marietta, Ginny often accompanied him to formal social events.  She very much enjoyed these occasions.  While she had the clothes, the jewelry and, being well-read, well-traveled and knowledgable on current events to accompany her gift of gab, the one thing she bemoaned not having was manicured nails; to be expected of a busy mother of four and a nurse.

On one occasion, she decided to take matters into her own hands and applied false fingernails.  After dinner, before the awards ceremony began, she made a trip to the ladies room.  Per usual, it was crowded.  When she was ready to leave the stall, upon pulling up her girdle, several of her false fingernails popped off, some bouncing into the adjacent stalls when hitting the floor.  Being too mortified to exit her stall she remained until she was confident the room was vacated.  After removing the rest of her nails, she returned to their table and, with the lights dimmed for the program, kept her hands in her lap the remainder of the evening.  

I can still picture when she told this story to a group of us sitting around the nurses’ station, laughing so hard we had tears running down our cheeks.  While we’ve all had similar moments in our lives, many of us (self included) would be reticent to share them with others.  Not Ginny.  Being comfortable in her own skin she had the ability to laugh at herself.

I so miss you Ginny.  Thanks for the memories.

• Ginny was a fun and important part  of my life.  I remember:  the trip to the Santa Fe Opera;  the drives to meet and resupply the Colorado Trail hikers; the "Mystery" parties; golf outings; seeing  foreign films Ginny suggested; discussing mysteries by Anne Perry and Nevada Barr.  She was a good person and good company.  I miss her a lot.