INTERLUDE VI Life with Neil: One Man's Baby Stuff….In case there’s any doubt, Neil was as active during the winter as he was at any other time of year. He didn’t do a lot of winter climbing, but that was at least partly because he loved to ski. Downhill ski. Like me, he’d had some sort of job all through high school. And Gram, bless her heart, had set aside a portion of my parents’ insurance payment for each of us to get something special, something we could choose any time after we were twelve. Or we could save it. Nina saved hers. Neil didn’t. He bought skis.
Most of my memories of Neil are of his caring side, his loving side. Skiing is different. He was competitive to the point where Jeremy, who had started skiing when Neil did, refused to ski with him. I think part of it was that Jere
