Nellie (Alberdina) Boss
(December 16, 1933 - October 2, 1999)

"Friendship is different from all other relationships. Unlike acquaintanceship, it is based on love. Unlike lovers and married couples, it is free of jealousy. Unlike children and parents, it knows neither criticism nor resentment. Friendship has no status in law. Business partnerships are based on a contract. So is marriage. Parents are bound by the laws, as are children. But friendship is freely entered into, freely given.

Friends never cheat each other, or take advantage, or lie. Friends glory in each other's successes and are downcast by the failures. Friends minister to each other, nurse each other. Friends give to each other, worry about each other, stand always ready to help. Perfect friendship is rarely achieved, but at its height, it is an ecstasy."

- Stephen E. Ambrose -
from his book "Comrades"

I never knew Nellie, but heard a lot about her from my sister, Deanna (Ziplo), and knew she was a remarkable lady. When my sister asked me to do a memorial page for Nellie, I asked her to tell me more about Nellie so I would know what to write. This is what I received from my sister, and it says so much more than I ever could say about the friendship they shared:

"I will try to tell you some things about Nellie.  We started talking late one night in Feb. of 1998.  I guess we were both just bored and found each other on Random chat.  It is so hard to explain to someone who isn't on ICQ, but with some people you talk to, you just seem to click right away and with others you don't care if you ever talk to them again.  Strange!

Nellie and I confided to each other about a lot of things, maybe things that if we had been standing face to face we wouldn't have done.  We did a lot of laughing together and a lot of crying.  She told me that it had always been difficult for her to express her feelings to people she cared about, so we practiced.  I don't know just how you can say this, but we shared conversations that we were having with other people on ICQ, and while the conversations were going on, sometimes we would get to laughing so hard it was hard to even type.  We talked on the phone one time, and even on the phone, we mostly just laughed.  We became as close as if we had been sisters.

She loved to bowl, play bingo and dance, and that was a few things we had in common, although we didn't talk about that very much.  Nellie also did a lot of volunteer work, which she loved doing.

Just one year ago she met a very nice man (Gerry) on ICQ.  He doesn't know this, but I shared every minute of this meeting him with her.  She was scared to death, but he made the last year of her life very happy.  With him she got to travel to Holland, her birth place, which she had not been back there for years since moving to Canada.

Through talking on ICQ we discovered that we even had some of the same people on our contact lists.  Even though we never met in person, which we had always talked about doing one day, we never got the chance.  I could tell that Nellie was a very caring person.  She talked to a lot of people on ICQ and I know that she will be missed.  I know that I will miss her very much.

Maybe at the end of it you could put, I love You Sis, which is what we always said to each other when we were done talking for the day."

I love you Sis . . . Dee