Comparisons and a Bit of Wistfulness

Husband had no sense of beauty or whimsy, which sometimes made life difficult for Fiorella, but she always knew he loved her.
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Fio and her brother are alike, but different. They both write poetry, are musical, laugh easily, and are honest as the day is long. But Fiorella will go out on a limb for what she considers to be a good cause and Brother is more conservative.
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Most of the people that Yours Truly knows like to travel, but she considers it a waste of good time--unless, of course, she's visiting friends or relatives. For her, people always come first.
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Your faithful correspondent tries to maintain a household routine, but Sonia Dog is a past master. She's always reminding Fio when it's time to let her out onto the balcony to sunbathe or telling silly Mommy that she has made a wrong turn (again) on the way to Dairy Queen.
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Fio, as you know, has a mania for languages, a mania she has never been able to pursue as she would have liked. She's done fairly well with odds and ends, but if only she had been born thirty years later, when foreign languages can be picked up on every TV screen.