Doctors told Esther Close that her husband Nick should leave friends and her family in the city landscape of coastal California for less humid environs so that Nick could have a chance at regaining some of his health. He had contracted tuberculosis at the end of World War I while serving in the American Expeditionary Force in Siberia. At the time, there was no sure cure for the fatal lung disease. The dry, Southwestern climate sometimes proved a good antidote against TB. Esther's story of teaching the local children of Paradise also indicates she and Nick held a deep fondness for the Chiricahuas and its people.