Peter Pane and his sister, Wendy Holloway.

Peter Austin Pane was born to Richard and Elizabeth Pane on April 17, 1970 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. His father, Richard, worked in construction. His mother, Elizabeth, had been a mathematics prodigy but dropped out of the University of Pennsylvania when she learned she was expecting Peter, a fact which Peter always believed caused his mother to resent him.

Peter was a happy child in his first two years. His father doted on his every accomplishment. But, upon the birth of his younger sister Wendy, much of the attention Peter was used to shifted to her.

As with many siblings, there was a fair amount of competition between Wendy and him. While Peter studied very hard and invested a lot of time and energy to his schoolwork, he was still more often than not outshined by Wendy. He wouldn't have minded it so much, if it hadn't seemed she did it with such little effort. Throughout their childhood, they challenged one another on any and all topics. There was not one subject on which they saw eye to eye. Naturally, this led to many pranks and practical jokes, where the recipient would vow to get the other back.

Despite this competitiveness, they got along as most brothers and sisters did. However, upon the dissolution of their parents' marriage, the family dynamics shifted drastically. Where once Peter always had an ally in his father during disputes, he now found he was always outnumbered because of the allegiance between Elizabeth and Wendy. Sadly, it caused some bitterness between the siblings.

For Peter, one of the saddest days of his life was when his father moved out. From that time forward, he had little time with Richard and felt sometimes that he was fatherless. After the divorce, Richard was bitter and rapidly slipping into the imaginary world of an alcoholic. He always made sure to complain to Peter about Elizabeth. He assured his son that all his woes were Elizabeth's fault, that Elizabeth had broken their home and denied them their father/son relationship. This, of course, drove a wedge between Peter and his mother and so, by his eighteenth birthday, he felt alienated and alone. He decided to go to school at the University of Texas to get away from his mother and sister.

While in college, he met and dated Julianne Bower. They married on September 5, 1992 and moved to Dallas, Texas. From the beginning, the marriage was rocky. Peter, following his father's example, had taken to overindulgence in alcohol. Even after Julianne discovered she was pregnant in early 1996, Peter just couldn't clean up his act. In the end, Julianne kicked him out in June of 1996 and they were divorced a few months later. Peter's daughter, Jacinta, was born that November. Though Peter has always stayed current with his child support payments, he does not see his daughter very often. She and her mother still reside in Dallas.

On his 27th birthday, less than a year after his divorce, Peter received word that his father had died in Pittsburgh of cirrhosis of the liver. He was devastated by the loss and very upset that neither his mother nor sister attended the funeral. Peter's grief only intensified his problems with alcohol. He began to have problems at work and was eventually fired. But the loss of his job at Texas Instruments served as a wake up call for Peter. He knew he had to change his ways, so he went into rehab and got clean and sober. When he was able to get a job with Rockwell International a few weeks after getting out of rehab, Peter knew his hard work had paid off.

Not long after starting his new job, Peter also started a new relationship with Amanda Hansen, a woman he met in Dallas. In January 1998, he decided to start his own business, and he and Amanda moved to her hometown of Memphis, Tennessee. Peter soon found his entrepreneurial feet, linking up software developers with investors, including venture capitalists and Internet companies. He works freelance from his home office in Memphis and has done well in his business ventures over the past two years. By 1999, he was debt-free and bought a home, a new car and some impressive artwork.

In February 2000, Peter learned his sister, Wendy, had moved to Oxford, Mississippi when she contacted him at his home in Memphis. They were both surprised and delighted to discover that they could put the past behind them and enjoy an adult relationship.Wendy was impressed with how much Peter had turned his life around and had really made something of himself. He was stable, had a home and a lovely girlfriend, Amanda Hansen, whom Wendy really liked. In fact, Wendy was so impressed, she agreed to allow her brother to handle the negotiations to sell the next software program she developed. They believed it was a new beginning, one they both truly wanted.

Peter was so devastated by his sister's death, he was inconsolable during the funeral preparations and service, and the family turned to Wendy's long-time friend, Milton Wilenski, to deliver the eulogy.