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| Rosemary Elizabeth July 2020 |
Today is August 30th. Tomorrow I will no longer be 77. My Rosemary will not be around and I will not prepare any strawberry daiquiris.
Taking a bath today I went for the almost empty bottle of shampoo and found a brand new one. Our toothpaste tubes (the empty ones) are rapidly replaced. I am never out of shaving cream or razor blades. Many years ago when I still smoked a pipe I would find little packages of mints on my bedside table.
The presence of my Rosemary is acutely noticed, particularly when she is not here. On Thursday I drove her to Squamish where Alexandra was going to then drive her to Lillooet to her house for a few days. Ale found a lovely restaurant by a river in Squamish and we celebrated her birthday (53) at lunch. Driving home without my Rosemary’s physical presence put me into a state of melancholy.
Tomorrow I am going to have an extraordinary day. My friend Leslie Dala is going to come over and in our Chickering he will serenade me with some of Bach’s Goldberg Variations. That is extraordinary! We will then imbibe an Argentine Catena Malbec.
Rosemary will not be around but her presence will be noted.
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| Squamish, British Colmumbia - 27 August 2020 |
Last night I was supposed to watch the 1957 film Raintree County with Elizabeth Taylor, Montgomery Clift and Eva Marie Saint. In 1958 my mother came to Austin to visit me. It was my first year at St. Edward's High School and I was really homesick. We went to the Austin Theatre on Congress Avenue to see Raintree County. It didn't take me long to ignore the performance of Elizabeth Taylor and concentrate on Eva Marie Saint. Henceforth I was a fan. Perhaps my favourite film of hers is the 1959 Hitchcock North by Northwest because of the bed scene with Cary Grant in the train compartment.
It was not too long ago that my writer friend John Lekich told me that my Rosemary reminds him of Eva Marie Saint.
Could it be that my future was ascertained that long ago day in Austin, Texas?