I do some of my best and most relaxing thinking when driving
in my car. It is also a time when I think of my daughter with both
happy and sad thoughts. Today’s thought centered around the fact that time has a way of passing so quickly. How can it be so long...1994? In a split second she was gone that March.
It seems like just
yesterday that she was so happy in her job at the music center in L.A. and meeting such
fabulous famous people as the marketing director. I remember one month she let
me know that Barry Manilow would be entertaining at a charity event. “Oh, I
wish I could come,” I told her. (At the time Barry was my favorite singer).
“Well, I’ll tell you what, she said, “since I am in charge of this event, if
you want to fly out to L.A.
that afternoon, bring a long black skirt and a white blouse, I’ll let you be
one of the hostesses. (They all wore black and white.) You’ll get to meet him,
and hear him sing. All you have to do is greet people and pretend you also work
at the music center.”
“Done,” I said. I made plane reservations, and off I went.
When she saw my outfit, she said, “Perfect, you’re hired.” What a great time we
had that night hearing all those great songs he used to sing and meeting
interesting people.
She would tell me inside stories of some of the stars she
had to work with. Just to name two, when Michael Crawford came to star in
Phantom, she commented how nasty he was to everyone who tried to be helpful to
him before he went on stage. (Maybe he had had a bad day, I ventured, but my
daughter didn’t think that was the case.) She also said she thought Charlton
Heston was the nicest man she had met in all the years she worked there. He was
kind to those who showed him around and when it came to interviews, was always
willing to give them to the press. She also enjoyed Yo-Yo Ma, the famous cellist, who she called
‘really cool.’
It seems like just
yesterday we were yakking on the phone about their next trip or the next
holiday I would see them in Arizona .
She always made sure that she was fair to her dad and me and we always shared
holidays, one year she came to me, the next was dad’s turn. It definitely
helped to keep the divorce a friendly one.
It seems like just
yesterday that I went to L.A.
for her engagement party and we decided to go house hunting. I was so shocked
at some of the prices of homes in 1993 that needed a lot of work, but were in
good locations. They were four times what we paid in Arizona
at the time, but I remember her words: “L.A.
is expensive and there is no way around it. If you want something nice, you pay
through the teeth.” She never got to buy a home. Four months after returning
from her honeymoon, she was dead.
Time passes very fast. I often wonder what her life would
have been like if she had been able to fulfill all her hopes and dreams and also
what my life would have been like to watch it all happen. The sad part is
knowing it never will happen.
