I knew Menya from high school in the 80's. She was what some people may have called a nerd and as I was the same, we became good friends.

Menya's flair for dramatics became evident to me in our grade 10 history class. We were doing skits on events that transpired in Canada during the 20's and 30's. Our sketch consisted of flashbacks of events leading up to the stock market crash and how they affected a somewhat dysfunctional family surviving the great depression.

Menya and I played a husband/wife team duped by some shady stock market financiers. We were dressed to the nines and had incredibly stupid expressions plastered on to our faces. When we were told to "sign on the dotted line.." Menya plucked the feather from my headdress ( a brilliant piece of improvisation), and signed "B. Dunne". The class then cracked up because Menya had given the name of the class teacher who was sitting at his desk looking somewhat surprised.

I'm sure I told this story many times to anyone who would listen. When Menya could no longer speak, she still smiled when I reminded her of it.