In 1977, my now-deceased wife, her son and his girl friend and myself went to her favorite place of all time. Las Vegas. I had written to my cousin, Irene Sheppard that we would be in the town on such and such a date and she wrote back that she would be staying there for a short while.

Could be just a coincidence, but a possible relative way back in time, Catherine the Great of Russia had a son that was aflicted with the same problem that cousin Irene had. Both were hemophyliacs. Not to mention she also had very bad arthritis. Wet weather bothered her greatly. Most of the year they lived in Spokane, Washington. A third of the year was spent in Vegas.

Back to the town and my usual loosing streak. The four of us were not doing very good at all, and I was doing the worst. Told the others I was going back to the hotel and take a nap or something. My wife handed me a hundred dollar bill saying she had nothing smaller. "Don't spend it all before I get back to the hotel."

Just like a woman.

I stopped at McDonalds and got a couple hamburgers and fries. Went back to the hotel. The rest of my money still intact. I stared out the window of the hotel for all of five minutes before I got bored.

Why don't I call cousin Irene?

She answered on the first ring of the phone and said she and her husband Roy Pranger would be over in no time at all.

The two rang the door bell and I opened the door. Irene looked at me rather funny as she entered the room. Roy guided her to a chair.

"Come closer," Irene said. "I am nearly totally blind. Damned cataracts."

She took hold of my shirt and pulled my face to withing inches of her face. "Uh huh, you look a lot like your dad."

We talked about "If" Otto and Iva ever got married. She began to laugh.

"It was a shotgun wedding you know. Iva told her dad that she was pregnant and Otto was the father. Iva's father, William Mason was set to punch Otto out. Sensing it, Otto said he would never do that to Iva. He loved her but would never do such a thing. Would he believe his daughter or Otto?

Before William could say another word Otto offered to marry Iva wether she was pregant or not just to prove he meant what he said about loving her. William was satisfied and would accompany the two to the wedding just in case.

Pregnant when they got married? What a laugh. Iva's first child was born 11 months after she wed Otto. Guess it was one of them long term pregnancies. I asked her about the "shot gun part" "My dad had his gun in the car just in case.'"

All are copyrighted by me, MDB