Betsy Winslow

Elizabeth Winslow also called Betsy was the wife of Paul Winslow and mother of Sunny Winslow, Dawn Schafer's best friend in Palo City, California. She first appears in Dawn and the Surfer Ghost. She passed away from cancer in the California Diaries series.

Biography

The Baby-Sitters Club

Elizabeth was a former hippie and a vegetarian. She was a potter and made stoneware according to Dawn in Dawn and Whitney, Friends Forever. She had her own studio in the Winslows' basement according to Dawn in Dawn and Too Many Sitters.

California Diaries

In the California Diaries it's mentioned that when she was a child, she was very shy and never did anything brave. She started keeping a diary when she was fourteen and kept them up until Sunny was born. In high school, she joined cheerleading and young republicans. She later quit and organized a peace march, which angered her parents. She decided to go to UCLA, instead of the conservative college her parents wanted her to go to. She started to date Paul, and he proposed to her on a cliff. Her parents refused to attend her wedding and later died in a car accident a few years before Sunny was born.

Maggie Blume wrote that she and her friends were never bored when they went to the Winslows' because Betsy was always coming up with fun things to do, like tie dying or making veggie burgers. She was full of life and love.

She started smoking when she was thirteen and was later diagnosed with lung cancer in Stacey and the Bad Girls. In Sunny, Diary Three its mentioned that her doctor found something abnormal in her lungs during a routine exam and wanted to run more tests. After undergoing surgery she was hospitalized for chemotherapy, which caused her to lose her hair. She wore a wig and her clothes hung loosely on her body. She joined a support group, who gave her a limo to drive her home. She got sick a lot, especially colds and fevers. She started to get irritated by certain smells (at one point she found the smell of her hospital lunch so overpowering that Paul had to take the tray out to the hall), and only weighed about 90 pounds. Her cancer later spread to her bones. In addition to going bald, she got age spots, wrinkles and colorless skin. In the hospital, Dawn took her to see Gracie. She was on oxygen and had a nasal cannula.

In the later books, her cancer became worse. She started to have a bad memory, mood swings, bedsores, and have trouble concentrating. She got terrible sores on and in her mouth and throat. Even sipping water was painful. In book 11, she eventually stopped treatment and went home to spend her final days with her family. She had to get pain medication and fell asleep while people talked. Close to death, she became very alert. She died with her sister Morgan, Sunny, and Paul at her side. She was one of the warmest people that Dawn Schafer knew and Dawn considered her to be a second mother.

Trivia

• She had a miscarriage sometime prior to Sunny's birth and it's later said that she couldn't have any more children in Sunny, Diary Three. She was okay with that, though, as she felt three people was perfect.
• In Dawn, Diary Two she tells Dawn about a second miscarriage (which occured at some point after Sunny's birth).
• Her birthday was in April.
• She loved newborns.
• She loved Begonias.
• When Betsy was younger she was afraid of everything. She tells Sunny a story about a fight she had with chickens in Sunny, Diary Three.
• She knew when she was going to die and had private talks with her friends and family.
• According to Dawn, she had a great sense of humor.
• Betsy kept journals since she was fourteen and has about 20 of them.
• Her best friend was a woman named Liz, whom she had been best friends with since they were children. Others in her diary include Janet, Molly, Dale, Nancy, Corrie, and Beth.
• Betsy died sometime before 4:45 am on March 20th.
• One time she took Sunny and Dawn down to Henry street and left pennies heads up for people to find, then went and got ice cream together (suggesting she wasn't a strict vegetarian).
• After she died, she was cremated.
• Once she discontinued treatments, the dining room was turned into a bedroom for her and she spent her final days there. Paul slept in there with her.