where did kate chopin grow up?
St. Louis
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 With his health further deteriorating , Chopin desired to have a family member with him . In June 1849 his sister Ludwika came to Paris with her husband and daughter , and in September , supported by a loan from Jane Stirling , he took an apartment at Place Vendôme 12 . After 15 October , when his condition took a marked turn for the worse , only a handful of his closest friends remained with him , although Viardot remarked sardonically that " all the grand Parisian ladies considered it de rigueur to faint in his room . " 

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 Four boarders at his parents ' apartments became Chopin 's intimates : Tytus Woyciechowski , Jan Nepomucen Białobłocki , Jan Matuszyński and Julian Fontana ; the latter two would become part of his Paris milieu . He was friendly with members of Warsaw 's young artistic and intellectual world , including Fontana , Józef Bohdan Zaleski and Stefan Witwicki . He was also attracted to the singing student Konstancja Gładkowska . In letters to Woyciechowski , he indicated which of his works , and even which of their passages , were influenced by his fascination with her ; his letter of 15 May 1830 revealed that the slow movement ( Larghetto ) of his Piano Concerto No. 1 ( in E minor ) was secretly dedicated to her – " It should be like dreaming in beautiful springtime – by moonlight . " His final Conservatory report ( July 1829 ) read : " Chopin F. , third @-@ year student , exceptional talent , musical genius . " 

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 In June 1837 Chopin visited London incognito in the company of the piano manufacturer Camille Pleyel where he played at a musical soirée at the house of English piano maker James Broadwood . On his return to Paris , his association with Sand began in earnest , and by the end of June 1838 they had become lovers . Sand , who was six years older than the composer , and who had had a series of lovers , wrote at this time : " I must say I was confused and amazed at the effect this little creature had on me ... I have still not recovered from my astonishment , and if I were a proud person I should be feeling humiliated at having been carried away ... " The two spent a miserable winter on Majorca ( 8 November 1838 to 13 February 1839 ) , where , together with Sand 's two children , they had journeyed in the hope of improving the health of Chopin and that of Sand 's 15 @-@ year @-@ old son Maurice , and also to escape the threats of Sand 's former lover Félicien Mallefille . After discovering that the couple were not married , the deeply traditional Catholic people of Majorca became inhospitable , making accommodation difficult to find . This compelled the group to take lodgings in a former Carthusian monastery in Valldemossa , which gave little shelter from the cold winter weather . 

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 Her parents , nicknamed ' Ernie ' and ' Ducky , ' were first cousins who married at the instigation of their common grandmother , Queen Victoria . The marriage was an unhappy one from the start . Princess Victoria Melita was eighteen at the time of Elisabeth 's birth . She was fond of Elisabeth , but found it hard to compete with Ernst 's devotion to their daughter . Ernst was convinced even before Elisabeth could speak that he alone could understand her . At the age of six months , she was scheduled to move to a new nursery and her father ' consulted ' her on her color preferences . He claimed that she made ' happy little squeals ' when he showed her a particular shade of lilac material . Ernst then decorated her nursery in shades of lilac . He later had a playhouse built for his daughter that stood in its own garden . Adults were forbidden to enter " much to the frustration of royal nurses and tutors , who could be seen pacing up and down impatiently outside as they waited for their high @-@ spirited young charges to stop their games and emerge . " 

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 At the end of November , Chopin returned to Paris . He passed the winter in unremitting illness , but gave occasional lessons and was visited by friends , including Delacroix and Franchomme . Occasionally he played , or accompanied the singing of Delfina Potocka , for his friends . During the summer of 1849 , his friends found him an apartment in Chaillot , out of the centre of the city , for which the rent was secretly subsidised by an admirer , Princess Obreskoff . Here in June 1849 he was visited by Jenny Lind . 
