Friday, October 4, 2019

77. Mame as model

Years ago, while working on an anniversary book for the New York Pops, I met a woman who's confident, organized, delightful, sociable, a music-lover (jazz as well as light Classical), and not afraid to wear big jewelry and a bigger smile. I believe she worked in the airplane parts business (fact check needed), where she met her late husband who also had an airplane parts business (fact check needed). When her husband died of a heart attack at the age of 59 (fact check needed), she told herself she'd run the business for two years—which turned into ten years. She must have done a fine job, because she lives well enough, has been on the Board of the NY Pops since it started, and has willed the proceeds from the sale of her apartment when she dies to the organization.

She looks a bit like Auntie Mame, has a fan club of Patrick Dennis equivalents, and is unstoppable and smart. We have lunch every year or so—and I'm delighted to be in the company of a woman of 83 or so who needs a cane (she calls it her pogo stick), but is nonetheless unstoppable. While I'll never have her stature (literally; she's tall . . . or was), I'll aim to have her spunk and sparkle.



(For September 25, 2019; posted October 4, 2019)

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