Don, my brother in law, called to say he had some photos of my late sis, Tula, when she was riding, when we were both members of a high school riding club and we used to go every week to Elston Stables in Elston, Illinois, to ride. There she was with Blackjack, the horse she rode in one of the horse shows George used to give. He was the owner of the stable. I’ve written about him before. His name was George Jayne and his half brother, a successful stable owner himself, had him murdered. All I knew was that they hated each other for years. One missed attempt was when George asked one of his groupies, a star struck teen, to start his car and she was blown up. Good old George – always careful.

Anyway, there was my sister jumping Blackjack over a barrier. I was too small then to be allowed to jump. I cried “I can do it, I can do it?” but no one was listening. Anyway, Don wanted to know if I would like to have the photos and also her spurs. So I got those too. I don’t know what to do with the spurs, so I suppose I will clean them up and put them on display.

I looked at those photos and wanted her back before she got sick, before she lost herself. My sis. I called her Toops. And she called me Kika.

xx, Teal