My stepdaughter Nancy is 12 years younger than I. I have tried for as long as I have known her to classify our relationship, and I haven’t succeeded yet. Suffice it to say we simply, often hilariously, love each other.
August 31, 2006
August 30, 2006
221/365 Kathleen
Hers was the first family I saw torn apart by inherited (or not inherited) money. I thought she and her siblings were stitched together so tightly that nothing could separate them. I underestimated the power of a thin dollar bill.
August 29, 2006
220/365 Jeff
He was the (rather young) King to my Queen in a musical production. Invariably late, losing lines left and right….but what a voice! At the cast party we sang to him, “He’s our King…thank heavens he knows how to sing…”
August 28, 2006
219/365 Melissa
We both worked at Lincoln Center. But she had come to NYC to be a star. When she moved back home to marry her hometown sweetheart, she asked me to photograph her, singing dramatically, on the stage of Philharmonic Hall.
August 27, 2006
218/365 Corinne
Prominent in the community, Corinne favored me with lots of attention when I was a newspaper reporter. She praised my writing, my photography, the sound of my voice. After I quit to stay home, she stopped returning my phone calls.
August 26, 2006
217/365 Harry Belafonte
“I believe you know my cousin,” I said, sticking my head into his dressing room, hoping for the best. I got it—an arm around my shoulders and a kiss on my cheek that I tried to preserve for days.
August 25, 2006
216/365 John
He was the John of John, Dick, and Sue. He had a bit part in “On the Waterfront.” He was the brain behind our (unsuccessful) group. He didn’t understand stuff like “C is to G as F is to C.”
August 24, 2006
215/365 Dick
He was the Dick of John, Dick, and Sue, the imaginatively named folk group I sang with as a teenager. (No, please don’t start calling me Sue.) He understood stuff like “D7 is to G as G7 is to C.”
August 23, 2006
214/365 Rita
She had unusual intelligence, warmth, and humor. I guess her husband did, too, until he got Alzheimer’s. After that he felt most secure at Walmart. I could count on seeing them at every visit, slowly walking all the aisles together.
August 22, 2006
213/355 Joan
“You could still have a miscarriage,” she said when I told her I was pregnant and happy. Something had always gone wrong or was about to. She was so determinedly negative that I eventually avoided her despite her other qualities.
