"Shirley and Pipsi...In Their Own Words"

About the Book

This is a correspondence between Shirley, a single British Lesbian, living in Spain and Sylvia, (known always as “Pipsi”) a married woman and mother of two college-age sons, living in Long Island, NY.

Selections from their letters and audio cassette tapes exchanged between August 1971 and June 1972 show their growing affection and love before ever having met! Unlike today where instant communication is available to us worldwide in the form of email., Ipods and cell phones, telephone access was very limited in many parts of Spain in 1971 and 1972. Communication was limited to postal services. (The original correspondence, when copied, consists of at least 1200, singles spaced typed pages! they kept the postal services on each side of the Atlantic in business!)

This correspondence led to a life – change for them both.

Shirley and Pipsi...In Their Own Words is nominated and became a finalist in two categories in the Golden Crown Literary Society's Fifth Annual Rewards Ceremony held in Orlando Florida in July 2009.

About the Author

I was born on September 16, 1934 and raised by a loving family in Birmingham, England, during World War II.

After elementary school, I attended a Grammar school and left home at the age of eighteen to attend Rolle College, Exmouth, Devon, which specialized in Teacher Training.

I have spent all my life as an educator, first in England, then on overseas assignments with oil companies who operated elementary schools for the children of their expatriate employees. I did tours of duty in Venezuela from August 1958 until June 1964 with the Shell Oil Company. I was successful in obtaining a post with another oil company and moved to Iran in August 1964 where I remained until 1969.

From Iran I relocated to Spain where I taught privately. I also bought a horse. Correspondence with Pipsi led to a life changing decision and I joined her in June 1972 in New York. We began living openly together as a lesbian couple in September 1972.

We moved to California in 1974. Pipsi continued her career as a Travel Consultant. I attended university and obtained both teaching and administrative credentials.

I held both teaching and administrative positions in various fields of education in California, retiring finally in 1993. In the same year I became a US Citizen. Pipsi and I became "Registered Domestic Partners" on July 18th, 2003, just one step on the ladder towards "Equal Rights For All". We were partners in every sense of the word. Both cancer survivors, we treasured each day spent with family, friends and each other until Pipsi passed away on October 3rd,2008.

Sylvia L. Paymer, known as Pipsi, was born in Antwerp, Belgium, on June 16th, 1930. Her parents were Marc and Regine,Neukorn, who already had a three year old son named Andre. The family lived in a large apartment and employed a cook and care-givers for the children