Min and Fin

 

see also "Raz and Daz"

Min and Fin

     From the pages of the Old Ziesing Dictionary comes just two of many nicknames that were placed upon family members in Pennsylvania and New Hampshire. "Min," of course was Minnie ne Maude Sinclair Adams who married the handsome Yalie Robert August. Ziesing on the same day (not year) I once put on the holy bonds of matrimony myself  December 10 of 1949. There are two thick novels here but suffice it to say Minnie, known by her sorties as "Sis" was a delightful and practical woman who lived to 90 very full years. She was loved in the full sense of the word by her son in law Greg who  paid her such compliments that I almost knelt before her on my first visit to Bear Cove. Truthfully, Minnie ran things but never seemed to sweat the details. She was described as gracious and I would say that was a bullseye but I was told by a  family friend she was a sweet-faced assassin playing bridge.  She did have rules and those had to be followed without fail. She was an avid gardener and fully participated in life with an energy that glowed.  Fin as ryhmes with Min was known as "Roy" in my time with the family drawn from Fauntleroy due to his youth of privilege. He was a puzzle since his intelligence was in the genius levels but he watched Fox News and had some very conservative ideas. He was a member of MENSA,  a graduate of Yale, a lieutenant in the US Navy during WW II, a prize-winning photographer and singer for the Whiffenpoofs and the Orpheus Club. Most of all he was a man with a gruff exterior but butter soft heart for pugs and grandkids. Roy loved music but also quiet and there is no more lovely quiet than Bear Cove at break of dawn when he took some of his greatest photos. These wonderful kids made it 62 years together and when their lights went out upstairs at Bone they were never replaced. Min and Fin are in my hall of fame of what Tom Brokaw called "the Greatest Generation."