And Then There Were Two

By Billa and Michele

When Luci retired from being a psychology professor at Temple University, she had a dinner and asked everyone invited to bring a suggestion as to what could be her next step in life. Turns out, she didn’t need our input. As always, she did exactly what she wanted. In this case, lucky for us, it was to write a cookbook. For the next several years, we had tremendous fun cooking, photographing, and writing about Dazzling Dinners.

At some point, we started calling ourselves Three Fare Ladies. We also created a website and, six years ago, this blog. The idea behind the blog was to write about food. Luci, ever the professor, used it to teach the readers and impart some of her vast culinary knowledge.

As a co-author, Luci was tough on us. She had exacting standards and expected the two of us to follow her example. Likewise, her dinners were perfection. She used only the best ingredients and often complicated recipes and techniques. Luci didn’t believe in shortcuts.

Luci was driven and adventurous. She was a licensed pilot, a mountain climber, and, when we first met her, was running 5 miles a day regardless of the weather. She loved traveling and spent many vacations scuba diving in Bali and other parts of Indonesia. She lived in Japan for a while teaching and that’s when she met her beloved husband, Arnie. Intrepid travelers, she and Arnie took many African safaris and even traveled to New Guinea, where they visited with a primitive tribe and Luci tasted termites.

She always loved animals. When a graduate student in evolutionary psychology, she chose to work with and study the behavior of mice and rats. For as long as we knew her, there were always 2 cats living in her house. Lately, she also began feeding some feral cats who came to her yard regularly. Even at the end, when she was very ill, she made sure the bird feeders were full of seeds, as she worried that the snow covered all the birds’ natural food.

Rest in peace our fair lady. You will be missed.