When I was small, my sister Anita was someone I looked 
up to a lot. She was so very beautiful and popular. When 
she married in 1955, we became very close. After she moved 
to California, we wrote long letters to each other. It seemed 
to me that she had everything going for her. But Anita had a 
lot of heartbreak in her life.

She was a very talented lady. She enjoyed writing stories and 
poems for people to read. She also enjoyed collecting things, 
like her McCoys.

Anita was such a giving person. It made me feel so small, 
when I would see the way she gave. She always enjoyed giving 
to others and she never hesitated when there was a need. 
I will always think of her when I look at my grandfather clock 
that she gave me.

She had a lot of pain in her life. She had lost one husband 
to divorce, then another to death. I know that God didn't 
overlook all the good in her. I will always remember her as a 
giving person. I miss her still, as if she just left yesterday.

I just wanted us to remember her today. She, too, would have 
loved this day together.