They were a happy couple, Betty especially. Light as a bird she was always smiling, head up, and greeted us cheerfully when she walked by our house on her way home to Andy from work. He was an official in our Presbyterian church.

Then Andy began having some incidents. An alarmed neighbor saw him driving with the car door wide open. There were others but that was the most indicative that something was very wrong. Betty took him to the doctor, the doctor to Miners Hospital. They took an x-ray, there's no way Miners had a CT scan instrument back then, in the early '70's, of Andy's head. There was a tumor. Next I knew (or remember knowing) we were going to Pittsburgh for a Pitt game on a Saturday and dad said, "Let's stop in to see Andy" (It was never a good sign if you had to go to a hospital in Pittsburgh). We went into the hospital, went up to Andy's floor, saw a nurse and asked which room Andy Shea was in. "Are you family?" the nurse asked. I can still see the tension on her face. "No, just neighbors from his hometown." "Mr. Shea passed away this morning." I don't remember who Pitt played or if we won or lost.

And for the rest of her days when Betty Shea walked by our house on her way home from work her head down and she was unsmiling.