Keith’s Memorial

woke up this morning after going to bed late…I set my alarm for 9:30 just to make sure I would wake…knowing full well I would be awake long before the alarm goes off…which did happen…but awaken by cramp in my foot… it hurts…went to bed watching Hush, Hush Sweet Charlotte…Bette Davis in her horror phase…with Gone With The Wind Melanie, the saint…Olivia DeHaviland playing the antagonist…actually evil who hits Agnes Moorehead with a chair knocking her down the staircase…where she lay with the bottle of drugs clasped in her hand…she tried to save her mistress, she was the housekeeper for Bette…now dead…and Olivia’s accomplice, Joseph Cotton administering the drug to flipped out Bette…this is when I fell asleep…Olivia is looking good…well coiffed and slim…Olivia lived to be 104, living a clean life away from Hollywood in Paris…I had packed last night…did my dishes…and made a mental list of what I wanted to bring with me…I made cucumbers and sour cream…and guacamole…grabbed can of smoked almonds for good measure…and a bag of chips in case I couldn’t buy corn chips on the way…so I was up early, getting ready…getting everything together…my phone charger…the cooler with the ice pack to keep the cukes cool, and the guacamole…and my bottle of soda…diet coke for the trip…I didn’t get gas yesterday because gas in Delaware is always cheaper…but it was not the case this time…26 cents more a gallon that at home…best laid plans…so I bit the bullet and paid almost $30 bucks for gas…I was just under half full…I let Bruce and Bern know when I left and Bruce replied…let him know when I was close so he could come down and let me into the garage…then later, the elevator wasn’t working…they live on the 8th floor…not good with a knee replacement to walk up and down all those steps…so Plan B…after I go to Tatte to get some pastries to take to Gina’s I call them again…I managed to park across the street from their apartment… after a four hour ride to DC…four gaper delays…also known as rubberneck…it does slow down the traffic…the first one on the Blue Route had the other side, going North, backed up for miles…nonetheless, there was a gaper delay on my side…and then traffic took off after we had all taken a look…there were three other on the way…a pain in the butt when there’s a time constraint…I wanted to be there by 2:30 so I could get my luggage upstairs, go to Tatte and off to Gina and Ed’s…finally Bernice came down…without Bruce…he had hurt his foot and decided not to go…he couldn’t put his shoe on…another best laid plan…we got to Gina and Ed’s a little after 4:00, put out my cukes and guacamole…said hello to everyone there…got myself a drink…and then something to eat…mingling…checking out the artworks…I love Gina and Ed’s apartment…they have a great balcony and a terrace off the kitchen, in the summer it’s another room and a place for Ed to have his garden in pots…it’s a huge space…and lovely…after a time, Ed read a few things from Keith’s “diary”…more a journal…made us laugh…then he opened it up for the rest of us…we each gave our memories of Keith…Ron’s daughter, Adrienne, came from England, told us that Keith had always been a part of her life…as long as she can remember…she brought up the farmhouse…it was in Artemis, PA…near the Breezewood part of the PA turnpike on the way to Pittsburgh…there were three bedrooms upstairs…the Master bedroom, the Freedman suite named after Doris and the Toot Suite…the smallest bedroom. it could could only fit a bed…which is where Nancy and I stayed…and she stayed there too…in the Toot Suite…the farm house was burnt to the ground by the rednecks there…a hate crime…with the money Keith got from the insurance he purchased the house on Peaks…which we were told had been sold…fairly quickly…sold furnished…Keith has some beautiful pieces everywhere…there were so many funny memories of Keith…how he used the word “fabulous” said emphatically…and how he made the word filth into two syllables…fil-ith…he was always so generous with everything he had…including his many residences…the farmhouse, the many houses he rented in Rehoboth…and of course his Peaks Island house…and he brought many DC people to Peaks…who bought houses…still and all we all miss Keith…he was so much fun…a good cook…and above all generous…I wore red in honor of his red kitchen…I told the story of Doris and Keith…Doris lived on Wisconsin Avenue across from the Washington Cathedral…when we would visit, Nancy and I, we’ll take strolls around the neighborhood…next door, we would always comment on the red kitchen…one day Doris called us to tell us she had met “Red Kitchen”…and the rest is history…I also told the story of Keith and I in Doris kitchen…Keith had been sick since the 80s…and we were taking turns taking care of Doris in her last weeks…I told Keith that he was the sickest of all of us but that he would be in the front row of all of our funerals…we laughed…I’m sorry I was wrong about that…Ed was in charge of selling Keith apartment in Maryland…he was too sick to make it to DC in December for the closing…he face-timed with Keith on Peaks about every little thing… which to go and which to stay…Ron got the giant portrait of Marlene Dietrich…which hung over Keith’s bed…there were a number of things what we could have in one of the bedrooms…just take a look and put your name on it with a post-it if you wanted it…I got a few things, notably a mixer…and an African sculpture he had gotten when he had a client on the Ivory Coast…and I got a few other things…that I will remember Keith when I use of look at it…we all scattered after 7:30…Bernice picked up a couple of pizzas from DeMarcos which is near her…we sat for dinner…and best of all, the elevator was working again…after dinner and talking…we went back downstairs to get my luggage and woobie blanket…which I always brought when I came to Doris…I don’t know what’s in store for tomorrow…but I’ll probably go to a museum and come home…I bought a pair of glasses to see the eclipse on Monday at the Delaware rest stop…$3.00…probably cost 20 cents to make…but my eyes will be protected…I glad I made the effort to come to DC and sing the praises of our beloved friend Keith…gone but never forgotten…rest in peace Keith…

I found 3 dimes, a nickel and 5 pennies on the way down…