Think About It. Life and Death. One hand is all I need to count the friends in my life. Of course that does not include wives, lovers and blood-related family. Truly there are, or were, five. One died last week. I don’t think she just passed away. She may not have gone to a “better place”. She may not join the angels or each and all of dearly departed. The fact is she died. The imprint of her life on her family and friends did not.
Carole Perry cared about and cared for family and friends. Her life was one of success and disappointment, perhaps like most of us. But unlike most of us, she didn’t seem to react in the way those of us with carefully protected egos might. At her home, a gathering could include the powerful political and the colorful Bohemian, along with simply eccentric personalities. It was never boring.
Thanksgiving and Christmas drew a collection of characters, all seeming to have food skills to go with their special styles of being. Kitchen was a moving picture of pots hanging and sounds of pans banging, drowning out the jazz and music of ice cubes for the Stoli, Oh. yes. There were generous glasses of good wine. Dinner then was a combination of the traditional and the nouveau with all the delicious richness and variety of the chefs sometimes sounding a bit like conversations in the Tower of Babel.
The practice of politics, I think, was a matter of expedience. To provide for her children in a reasonable manner she seemed to do what she had to do. In the process, from editing for a popular wine review publication to assisting one of the most powerful men in America. All the while, family and friends shared the experiences and the nurture of a mother who was in her own way one of the world’s characters in the best sense of the word
From the youthful Marilyn Monroe look-alike to the tired and retired servant of family and the public Carole was a friend of many. I’m glad she is on my one hand and was a true friend of mine, And (who knows?) perhaps that means in Life and Death. Think About It.