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On solstice evening, my dear friend Cyndy called me and told me that her mother had passed that afternoon. Interesting that she died on the 21st, as she was born in 1921. I met Bea in the late 70's when I met Cyndy. It was on my first trip to Santa Cruz, where Bea and Bill had a summer house. She was tall and gorgeous. She had beautiful hands with long fingers. She was smart, funny and silly. Bea always had a twinkle in her eye, and a way to pull your leg, up her sleeve.
Funny, the things you remember about people. She loved to cook, and cook healthy. She made something she called brick bread. You got it, hard as a brick. In those days, she made chili with ground turkey, because it was healthier than ground beef. To this day, I make my chili with ground turkey. Every time I unwrap a cube of butter, I think about her. She used to keep the butter "paper" in the freezer, and if she ever needed to grease a pan, boom she took out a butter wrapper and slathered it right on the pan.
She was a nurse during World War II, and was married to Figher Pilot Avery who was her son Franklin's dad. I think the story is something like he survived the war as a fighter pilot, and was killed in a domestic plane crash. One of you children-please correct me if I'm wrong.
One day I asked Bea if she had it to do over again, would she have children. She said, Oh yes I'd have more!
Her 5 children are all amazingly creative and talented artists. Every one a rascal! Two have a great web presence. Franklin is a fantastic photographer. Laurie does to die for inlaid floors. Cyndy is an artist who became a contractor. She decided early on that she'd prefer that people live in her artwork. Heather is amazing at everything, as is Debbie. There are also many, many talented beautiful grandchildren.
So many of our elders are taking their leave. I wonder if we will retain their wisdom, and pass it on. Perhaps we'll take some of theirs and mix ours in with it, to create our own. I miss being around them. Funny to be exposed to the world without their shield. We miss them most at the holidays.
My heart goes out to all of you, Franklin, Debbie, Cyndy, Laurie and Heather. Your mom will be missed tremendously by those whose lives she touched.
Your black sheep sister,
Debow
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In the blogosphere we use that symbol to represent the stone that we would place on her grave.
I didn't know your friend, but I found this story very touching. My mother's name is Bea and my father's name was Bill. He died in 1992. It's nice to read about another couple with those names. Makes them almost familiar.
My sympathies to the family.
Thanks RD. That is really neat. Where do I put the (0) ???
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DS
A lot of folks just put it at the top of a comment, the way I did. It's a virtual symbol, like an emoticom.
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RD
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