On Friday I lost a very dear friend, and so did breastfeeding.  I met
Betsy Young, who lived only 25 miles away, when we roomed together at
my first La Leche League International in 1987.  We roomed together at
virtually every other international conference I've been to since
then, whether it was ILCA or LLLI.  Betsy became an IBCLC in about
1993, and was really looking forward to her birthday last fall...
because that was when she turned 80 years old.  She didn't look 80,
she didn't dress 80, she didn't act 80, she didn't think 80, and she
loved to tell people how old she was, so she could see their reaction.
 Turning 80 made it even more fun for her.

She brought something to consultations that most of us can't - an
ability to mother the grandmother as well as the mother.   And she
brought something to meetings with hospitals and politicians that most
of us can't - the authority and string-pulling that come from having
served on committees and boards with The Right People for 50 years.
Betsy got things done.

She bought "Breastfeeding Matters" by the case and left copies in
doctors' offices.  Breastfeeding, she said, was her mission in life,
and that was how she chose to spend her retirement money.  She wasn't
in this to make money, but to give it away.

Her mission began when she was an undergrad at Cornell University in
the late 1930s or early 40s, where a nutrition professor named Miss
Munsch changed her life.  Miss Munsch would walk up and down the
aisles, shaking her finger at the class:  "You *love* your babies,"
she'd admonish the class, "and you *nurse* your babies!"  Miss Munsch
said that the only things we knew were in breastmilk were the things
we knew were in breastmilk - we didn't know what it was we didn't
know.  And we didn't know what harm we were doing when we gave babies
something else.  Those lessons stayed with Betsy for life;  if there
were two people who were her biggest influences, they were that
professor and Maureen Minchin.

She married a dairy farmer and raised 4 fat breastfed babies (on
inverted nipples no less).  When she learned about La Leche League
years later, she realized she'd found a way to reach others.  You've
probably never heard of her; her name was never connected with
anything she did.  But if you've been to an ILCA or LLLI conference
and have met her, I know you remember her.

At her 50th wedding anniversary party a year and a half ago, she put
on her tap dancing shoes and entertained us with a routine she hadn't
done in something like 65 years, ending with the most coquettish of
curtsies.  It was a moment that was pure Betsy.   Ahh, my friend.

Diane Wiessinger, MS, IBCLC, LLLL  Ithaca, NY