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Sunday, June 13, 2021

Leonard's Story: December 10, 1956

Hazel saves the drafts of her letters to Leonard, Pat, and Pat's Aunt Be and Uncle Dave. In them we learn of Leonard and Pat's decision to divorce and of the difficult year they have had with each other. It is clear they are no longer in California, perhaps in Madison, Wisconsin, where Leonard might have been interning after graduation from USC Medical School.

Hazel mentions in passing that they now have a color television; Arnold's family would not get a color TV for another dozen years. 











Bill and Hazel keep their word treating Pat as a daughter. While she was not around family gatherings when Leonard was (and especially once he remarried), she remained a close friend to Laura and later when Arnie and Newlin moved to Los Angeles, she stayed in close contact, occasionally babysitting the their young children. Arnold and Newlin always visited her on our trips back to California. And Bill and Hazel made a point of including her in their will.

Pat remarried later in life (becoming Pat Mattison) and still lived in Los Angeles after all those decades. When Laura struggled with cancer in the 1990s, Pat and her second husband took care of Laura's finances, and after her death, part of Laura's estate. Here is Pat in 2006, around age 84, still imbibing and enjoying life:



next post  Arnold and Newlin: April 5, 1957

previous post  Arnold and Newlin: 1956 Cape Cod

first post in Flashbacks  How the Nevis family came to California

first post in Arnold's Story  July 1943

first post in blog  Leonard's Story: May 29, 1943