1995………..twenty-five years have passed…………..
Sipping my morning coffee while chatting with a friend on the phone, idly flipping through the pages of the Santa Barbara News-Press spread on the kitchen counter……her name jumped off the page…
I am stunned; she is here at UCSB – my alma mater…
…in the audience at the master class…. then in line to greet her….
‘I am George’s niece…..’ ‘I knew of you…..’ ‘will you come for tea?…..’ ‘arrange with my assistant, David…………..’
[impressions: commanding…. small…. riveting…. diva…. hyperbolic…. intense…. ]
David……‘Tea? Perhaps Sunday, or Tuesday next. She might call Sunday at 4:00 and come at 4:30………”
Prepared for tea on Sunday……..no call
Monday morning call from David…..‘We would like to come for ‘tea and a chat’ at about 5:30′.
George’s mother’s Limoges tea set,
her cut crystal bowl filled with strawberries, the platter she ‘hand carried’ from South Dakota to California in the ’30’s,
tea sandwiches and lemon bars…………….
David again at 4:45: Rosalyn not feeling well………….but ‘will you join us tomorrow evening at 5:30 for cocktails at the Biltmore?’…….
Susan Wennerstrom | W designs 