Archive for My Life – Page 3

A Front Row Seat for the Cultural Revolution: The First Annual Tientsin Carpet Fair (Part 3)

by Beverley
December 9th, 2012

Chapter Two
The First Annual Tientsin Carpet Fair
Part Three

One day when we arrived back at the hotel for lunch, I spotted two Chinese boys playing badminton in a small paved area near the hotel. Wandering over to watch, one of the boys laughingly held out his racquet to me. Throwing caution to the thick black smoggy wind, I took it. A bit of exercise was much more appealing than lunch. Badminton happens to be one sport where I’ve always been able to more than hold my own. But this was the People’s Republic of China so I gave my cute young challenger enough of a fight to let him see he was playing a worthy opponent. But of course I subtly gave him the last point.

Totally engrossed in the change of pace, and etiquette of our game, I hadn’t noticed the crowd gathering to see the strange woman with strawberry blond hair. Westerners were a great novelty in Tientsin, unlike Peking and Shanghai where foreign diplomats and business people were rather commonplace. Word had spread fast and a very large crowd surrounded us by the time the police arrive to clear them out. Comrade Sung arrived with the police and the crowd dispersed fast. Needless to say he had much to say to me at our evening meeting beginning with, “I forbid you to ever play badminton again!” Then he went on about visitors in China must abide by the rules. In all the material I had to prepare me for my trip I couldn’t remember a single reference to playing badminton but I let him rant on.

One evening we decided to have a cocktail party. Helene volunteered her suite — she somehow had landed a bedroom and little sitting room. Everyone was instructed to bring their own glass. Steve brought his own chair. However, he spent most of the party on the floor with his legs over the chair and hands behind his head mentally composing a new song. While known primarily as an actor, TV star and comedian, Steve Allen was a jazz musician, composer of many hundred songs including the very popular “I’ll be Home for Christmas”, author of books of poetry, fiction, mysteries, juvenile books, autobiographies, travel, screen plays, movie scripts, TV plays, a man of seemingly limitless talents. Jerry and Louise Fisher and I brought two bottles of champagne which cost us about $3.00. That’s exactly what it was worth. Herb Cole brought a bottle of Chinese red plum wine no one even tried. The safest drinks in China at that time were tea and orange pop. If you ordered orange juice for breakfast, you got orange pop. In fact, if you ordered anything anytime that wasn’t understood there was a pretty good chance it would be orange pop that was served. Tea was accessible 24 hours a day. A very large thermos of boiling water was left outside our rooms each morning. And tea leaves could be purchased at the “gift shop” downstairs. Those thermos bottles appeared to be quite flimsy but they were possibly one of the greatest Chinese inventions since gunpowder. Water could stay boiling hot in them for up to two days.

Lying in bed the next morning waiting for my 7:00 call my thoughts wandered. A French woman’s comment, “The Tientsin Fair wasn’t ready for your crowd. You all have turned into the best show in town!” The girls guides at the fair describing the years they spent laboring and living in the caves of Yunnan and how much they respected the hardworking peasants there. We hadn’t heard any news for days. We knew nothing beyond our own little group’s activities. What were those gunshots I’d heard late two nights before? It wasn’t a dream. Herb had heard them too.

A visit to a carpet factory broke into the monotony of the fair. The factory employed over 1,000 workers. They were a healthy happy looking crew who worked from eight in the morning until noon. Two hours were allowed for lunch and a nap, then back to work from two until six in the evening.

Four girls worked at each loom. They would pull and knot wool with their left hand, cutting, to the exact size needed with a small cleaver in the right hand. Embossing was done with the newly invented electric scissors. There was great pride in these new electric scissors as the old scissors crippled the hands of those who used them continually. This factory visit, like every visit to any business, ended with a meeting with the heads of the factory. At these meetings we were asked for suggestions on how they could improve and of course included much Communist Party propaganda from our hosts.

George Bush and Steve Allen in Tientsin

Arriving at the carpet factory we ran into George H. W. Bush, chief of the U.S. Legation in Peking, who was just leaving. He appeared very happy to see fellow Americans, especially since he and the Allens were old friends. He was warm and friendly and immediately extended an invitation to visit Barbara and him when we got to Peking. Although it was the Allens who were his friends, he was very good about including all of us in his conversation. Little did we realize this friendly very attractive man we were talking to would soon be president of the United States? Speaking of which I must say the small American flags on the front of his official black limo waving in the Chinese breeze as he drove off looked mighty good to us.

Our lives were fairly well confined to the fair area and Tientsin Hotel Number One for our first five days in China. Jane and Rosa’s negotiations for their carpet purchases were confusing, annoying and generally hopeless. When the two of them could finally agree on something, negotiations would be stalled by the Comrades Chou and Chen who sat across the table from us at all business meetings. Rosa was the big problem. Every time the order appeared set, she found a new rug she wanted, had a new list, or just plain disappeared. We were learning to say “Do you know where Rosa is?” in Chinese, Rumanian, Bulgarian and Hungarian. And we could understand “No” in all these languages.

This ends the second chapter of “A Front Row Seat for the Cultural Revolution.” In a few days we will continue the adventure in Tientsin as we begin chapter three.

Chapter 1: Part 1  Part 2
Chapter 2: Part 1  Part 2  Part 3
Chapter 3: Part 1  Part 2  Part 3  Part 4
Chapter 4: Part 1
Chapter 5: Part 1  Part 2  Part 3
Chapter 6: Part 1  Part 2  Part 3
Chapter 7: Part 1
Chapter 8: Part 1  Part 2
Chapter 9: Part 1  Part 2
Chapter 10: Part 1
Chapter 11: Part 1  Part 2
Chapter 12: Part 1
Chapter 13: Part 1

By The Way
This blog was started to sell my new book and I keep going off on other topics. Please do check out The Beautiful Lady Was A Palace Eunuch at Amazon.com
Acknowledgement:
Kathleen Fetner, Technical Advisor and Friend
Categories Books, My Life
Comments (1)

A Front Row Seat for the Cultural Revolution: The First Annual Tientsin Carpet Fair (Part 2)

by Beverley
November 13th, 2012

Chapter Two
The First Annual Tientsin Carpet Fair
Part Two

The young language students were quite delightful. It was a great novelty for them to be able to practice the English they were studying with real English-speaking Americans. They smiled at us when Comrade Sung couldn’t see, giggled at anything slightly humorous, and eyes lit up whenever we came out with a bit of slang or unusual idiom.

Steve Allen getting checked out

Steve Allen arrived a couple of days after us. He had been committed to perform at a charity benefit two days after we were to leave for China and wasn’t about to disappoint the organization. Comrade Sung and the students really had a challenge when they took on the multi-talented and very funny Steve Allen. His answers to questions could be most unpredictable, to the total confusion of Comrade Sung and delight of the language students who knew more English than the Comrade.

Jayne and Rosa both came down with a flu bug several days after our arrival but tried not to give in to it. One night, after a particularly arduous day at the carpet fair, Jayne went straight to bed. I decided to take a big bowl of chicken vegetable soup up to her room after we finished dinner about 6:00 in the evening.

Room service definitely wasn’t available in Tientsin Hotel Number One during the Cultural Revolution. Maneuvering a large bowl full of hot liquid and vegetables up five floors in a swaying ancient cage elevator proved to be an interesting challenge.
Inside the sick room, after first knocking, I found the invalid entertaining five of the young language students. They were sitting on her bed, the only chair in the room and on the floor. They had snuck in, unknown to the dreaded Comrade Sung, for “slang lessons”. Deep into the night, Jayne resting against several of the lead-filled pillows the hotel supplied, and I on the floor, taught “so long”, “see you around” and other innocent little gems to the enthusiastic young Chinese. A couple of days later, walking near the hotel, a voice called out to me, “Hi Pal!” It was of course one of our students.

On one occasion Steve Allen was speaking very slowly and clearly to a young man who was studying English. “You speak English good,” the young man exclaimed.

We each found our own way to cope with language problems. My worry was leaving a morning wakeup call each night. I’d write very large on a piece of paper “7:00 Room 203” and take it down to the formidable two attendants who sat in a little kiosk near the elevator spying on us and guarding the heavy keys we needed to get into our rooms, unlike the Chinese who entered by magic. Then I’d show them 7:00 on my wrist watch. The charade continued with me resting my head on my hands, closing my eyes pretending to sleep, snoring a bit, then knocking on the wall. It worked very well, except for the night one of the attendants asked after my performance, “You want me to wake you up at 7:00 in the mornings again?”

We were transported each day, for five days, to the First Tientsin Carpet Fair in buses, and bussed back to the hotel for lunch. Then back to the fair for the rest of the day. Jayne and Rosa’s negotiations for carpet purchases went on endlessly. And since I got into China under the guise of a secretary to the newly opened Allen-Wu Carpet Company I had to be there pen and paper in hand. This fair was our first experience with the “no one can make any decision what-so-ever without consulting someone else who is somewhere else” policy in the PRC in February 1975. There were interminable sessions at long tables, drinking tea and inhaling the cigarette smoke of our hosts, who also made frequent use of the ever-present brass spittoons. And through all of this, hour after hour, a pianist at a Steinway played. Every now and then, in our honor, he would play a very loud rendition of Home on the Range. —to be continued

Chapter 1: Part 1  Part 2
Chapter 2: Part 1  Part 2  Part 3
Chapter 3: Part 1  Part 2  Part 3  Part 4
Chapter 4: Part 1
Chapter 5: Part 1  Part 2  Part 3
Chapter 6: Part 1  Part 2  Part 3
Chapter 7: Part 1
Chapter 8: Part 1  Part 2
Chapter 9: Part 1  Part 2
Chapter 10: Part 1
Chapter 11: Part 1  Part 2
Chapter 12: Part 1
Chapter 13: Part 1

By The Way
This blog was started to sell my new book and I keep going off on other topics. Please do check out The Beautiful Lady Was A Palace Eunuch at Amazon.com
Acknowledgement:
Kathleen Fetner, Technical Advisor and Friend
Categories Books, My Life
Comments (2)

A Front Row Seat for the Cultural Revolution: The First Annual Tientsin Carpet Fair

by Beverley
October 11th, 2012

Chapter Two
The First Annual Tientsin Carpet Fair
Part One

The pretentious big shiny red and gold invitation Rosa’s influence had secured for me that had brought me to China during the Cultural Revolution read:  “China National Native Produce and Animal By-Products Branch, Peking Branch and Talien Branch cordially invite Mrs. Beverley Jackson to the Chinese Carpets Fair 1975 in Tientsin.”  Thirty-four years later I still can’t explain why animal by-products groups hosted a carpet fair, other than the fact that the carpets were made of wool or silk.  I suppose if you stretched logic a bit a silkworm might qualify as an animal.  But the timing was right for me to arrange my life and work in Santa Barbara to allow for a few weeks absence for such a rare opportunity so I didn’t question anything.  I accepted the invitation to the Tientsin Carpet Fair immediately.

Tientsin Hotel Number One was old.  It was as clean as any place could be where brooms and dustpans are the substitute for vacuums when cleaning tired worn carpets.  But this was a big exciting adventure and things like dirty carpets didn’t really matter.  Our group quite liked the quaintness of Tientsin Hotel Number One.  I was deeply saddened to hear it totally collapsed in the big earthquake that hit Tientsin the following year, but happy it hadn’t occurred while we were in residence.

My room had two dark metal twin beds and quilts in white muslin duvet covers with big square cut-outs mid-quilt to show the pink quilt inside.  The steam radiator worked, and so did the unglamorous but western style toilet.  The hot water supply was occasional at best.  The bed linens and limited towels were thin with age and wear, but clean.  All meals taken at the hotel were quite good.  The first night Marge urged all of us to get a sealed bottle of water in the dining room to take to our rooms. So we all followed her lead and got bottles of water like Marge’s. Traversing the lobby heading for the elevator holding our Chinese water bottles we drew rather quizzical stares.  In our rooms it only took one sniff, not even a sip, to understand the reason for those quizzical stares.  Somewhere along the way the word water had been translated into strong undrinkable white wine.

There were questionable locks on the doors to our rooms and no Chinese inhibitions about entering without knocking.  Delivery of a thermos of boiling water, clean laundry being returned, the nightly inquisitional visits from Comrade Sung — all entered no matter the state of dress or undress we might be in without hesitation and totally unannounced.  More than once I was caught stark naked but no one blinked.  Well, no one but me!

Comrade Sung appeared to be responsible for us.  Although our original thinking was he was checking us out for what harm we might do to China, I eventually realized he was equally concerned that nothing bad happens to the rare visitors from America.  There were elements that might profit from an unpleasant incident involving Americans in China.  The Bamboo Curtain was just beginning to rise a tiny bit and not everyone in China approved.

Each night after we returned from dinner — about the time we had all our clothes off and were ready to bathe — Comrade Sung would burst into one of our rooms accompanied by two young language students from the foreign language school in Tientsin.  Two different students every night.  “Mrs. Jackson, why Mrs. Pollack wear white gloves all time?”  “Mrs. Jackson, why Jerry Fisher do all talking and wife not talk much?”  And in other rooms he had quite a few questions about Mrs. Jackson. “Why Mrs. Jackson have two coats?  Who was Jacqueline she talks about?  Her daughter is named Tracey.”  (Jacqueline was my beloved German shepherd.) “Why Mrs. Jackson always want yoghurt for breakfast?”  Reason for this was I’d been advised that the Chinese had learned to make delicious yoghurt from the Russians and it was a safe way to get calcium into my Chinese diet.

During one of his interrogations with me, quite amusingly Comrade Sung confirmed our suspicions that all our bags were carefully and cleverly searched while we were at the fair each day.  “Mrs. Jackson,” he began.  “Why Mrs. Allen have so many hairs?”  It took a minute for me to understand.  Some years previously actress Jayne Meadows Allen’s adored long-time hairdresser retired.  After endless attempts to replace him, Jayne simply gave up and started covering her own beautiful natural red hair with red wigs.  And she was traveling with five red wigs in her “locked” suitcases. —to be continued

Chapter 1: Part 1  Part 2
Chapter 2: Part 1  Part 2  Part 3
Chapter 3: Part 1  Part 2  Part 3  Part 4
Chapter 4: Part 1
Chapter 5: Part 1  Part 2  Part 3
Chapter 6: Part 1  Part 2  Part 3
Chapter 7: Part 1
Chapter 8: Part 1  Part 2
Chapter 9: Part 1  Part 2
Chapter 10: Part 1
Chapter 11: Part 1  Part 2
Chapter 12: Part 1
Chapter 13: Part 1

By The Way
This blog was started to sell my new book and I keep going off on other topics. Please do check out The Beautiful Lady Was A Palace Eunuch at Amazon.com
Acknowledgement:
Kathleen Fetner, Technical Advisor and Friend
Categories Books, My Life
Comments (3)

A Front Row Seat for the Cultural Revolution: And So the Adventure Begins (Part 2)

by Beverley
October 7th, 2012

Chapter One
AND SO THE ADVENTURE BEGINS
Part Two

My flight to China took over 24 hours. We ran into a heavy snow storm that put us down in Anchorage, and kept us there until record snowfall abated in Tokyo. My plane seatmate was a U.S. military man who, during his temporary leave in the States, had been dramatically reunited with his wife on the popular “Truth or Consequences” TV show. The next day she told him she was divorcing him!

Two of our party, Helene Pollack and Herb Cole, had been told by their U.S. doctors that they wouldn’t need smallpox vaccination certificates. Immediately upon arrival in Hong Kong they were rushed into an office at the Airport. Helene came out rubbing her arm, clutching an official white form. Herb came out looking distraught. He didn’t get a shot because he still had a scab from his U. S. vaccination. But the nurse couldn’t give him a form like Helene’s. I suggested we adjust our itinerary to allow an extra half hour at every port of embarkation and debarkation for Herb’s vaccinations. He didn’t find me amusing.

Torrie Levy had her own crisis to cope with. Her hairdryer broke the first morning in Hong Kong and she didn’t want to continue the trip. She’d already lost her glasses on the plane from Los Angeles. Her mother Marge Levy had lived through 30 years of these crises with Torrie and carried on unconcerned.

The two days in Hong Kong involved a lot of trips to China Travel Agency to get the endless documents required. And we all spent a good part of the last night making sure our customs declarations were accurate to the last U. S. penny or dime that might be found in a pocket or bottom of a purse. We’d been forcefully warned that there was no fooling around with money declarations going in or coming out of China. Pennies and dimes mattered to the precise Chinese.

And so, when that big old puffing steam engine pulled us as close to the border as it could go, we were ready for the short walk across the wooden bridge into the People’s Republic of China where the bright red flags were waving and Chairman Mao was smiling at us from a big gaudy painting.

Lugging carry-on bags, camera cases, coats and purse, I walked excitedly across the short bridge into the People’s Republic of China. Well, I didn’t exactly walk in. I fell in. There was a small step as I walked off the bridge that was invisible beneath all the things I was carrying and down I went.

Jayne Meadows next to a frozen lake at the Summer Palace

The customs people were smiling and cooperative, not at all what we’d been led to anticipate. Well, they were smiling and cooperative until they got to Rosa and Jayne. Jayne’s passport and visa photos had been taken without her red wig and she wasn’t getting into the People’s Republic of China without removing the wig she was wearing. However, Rosa was the real problem. Since we’d been helping her carry them we were aware that she was entering the People’s Republic of China with 11 suitcases and some extra boxes and bags. What we didn’t realize was she was bringing not only clothes for her family but TV sets, bathroom scales, meat grinders, and more. The customs officials were not happy with Rosa’s baggage and we seemed in for an endless delay. We’ll never know if her persistence wore them down, they just wanted her out of there, or Rosa said some magical name or words, but we were suddenly and most unexpectedly waved on.

An hour and a half later, after much tea served in tall quaintly decorated enamel cups with lids, and a good lunch of assorted dishes of stir fried vegetables, pork, chunks of deep fried fish, and rice we exited the way we’d entered. We had to catch a train to Canton. In Canton we’d catch the plane to Peking where we’d take a train to Tientsin, which is where we were actually going. Nobody had ever suggested that this trip would be easy. Approaching the memorable step of my entrance, we encountered four uniformed men on either side of the step. They were stationed there to direct our attention to the step. Their outstretched arms, all 16 of them, pointed directly towards that one small step. Foreigners didn’t often make the same mistake twice during the Cultural Revolution in China.

The train to Canton was clean and air conditioned. We were now passing through a tropical area, not unfamiliar to my Santa Barbara eye. Lush green foliage and crops, flowers, banana trees, house roofs of red tile. The Canton train station was a marvel of high ceilinged, Leningrad influenced, Art Nouveau. The vast waiting room, filled with eggplant colored imitation leather sofas, had marvelous etched glass windows. Glass curtains of lace with bamboo design stretched the length of the two story tall exterior windows. But we didn’t linger here. We were moved on to the airport and another waiting room and more tea. We drank a lot of tea in dining or waiting rooms before we finally got to Tientsin. The dining rooms all had wash basins near the door. Waiting rooms were decorated with small tangerine trees covered with tiny fruit in pots and lots of big red propaganda banners hanging everywhere.

And so ends the first chapter of “A Front Row Seat for the Cultural Revolution.” In a few days we start Chapter Two. You don’t want to miss it!

Chapter 1: Part 1  Part 2
Chapter 2: Part 1  Part 2  Part 3
Chapter 3: Part 1  Part 2  Part 3  Part 4
Chapter 4: Part 1
Chapter 5: Part 1  Part 2  Part 3
Chapter 6: Part 1  Part 2  Part 3
Chapter 7: Part 1
Chapter 8: Part 1  Part 2
Chapter 9: Part 1  Part 2
Chapter 10: Part 1
Chapter 11: Part 1  Part 2
Chapter 12: Part 1
Chapter 13: Part 1

By The Way
This blog was started to sell my new book and I keep going off on other topics. Please do check out The Beautiful Lady Was A Palace Eunuch at Amazon.com
Acknowledgement:
Kathleen Fetner, Technical Advisor and Friend
Categories Books, My Life
Comments (6)

But I Didn’t Know Gable

by Beverley
September 3rd, 2012

Hello to all! Fluffy here saying goodbye for now. Mom’s doing so much better. That leg she couldn’t move up at all after a fall she can now raise six inches and going up steadily. Eric Smith, who does her physical therapy, is quite proud of her. So now I’m ready to turn the blog back to mom. I’m flying off to get some of my turkey friends hidden before Thanksgiving. They are the ones who need help now, so here’s the mike back to Mom…

Beaux Arts Ball, 1964. I’m chairman and having a ball with the late Duke Sedgwick (Edie’s father) and the late artist Don Freeman (in the high hat).

You’re a hard act to follow Fluffy and your many friends around the world will miss you. I’m glad you mentioned Eric as he is doing wonders for me. But he worked me so hard yesterday I collapsed on the bed and watched a series of old Ava Gardner films on TCM. What amazed me was how many of her leading men I knew! Fifty Five Days at Peking of course was of great interest to me. I was impressed with how accurate the costuming and sets were. My old friend the late John Ireland (he and wife Daphne lived in Santa Barbara for years and she still does) had a big role in the film. And while the star of the film, Charleton Heston, was very good I cannot bring myself to say so because although he played Moses and headed the NRA, which impressed the gun lovers of the world, and looked upon himself as God I know a secret of his that few people in the world have had a clue. Even the National Enquirer missed it. And TMZ you too! But since it involved a fine actress and dear friend whom I deeply admired and her son I’ve kept it totally to myself for I guess 40 years. But since now both she and her grown son are now gone, I’m sharing this much.

Seven Days in May co-starred my close friend and wonderful actor Kirk Douglas. Kirk and his great wife Anne, my friends of many years, have had a Santa Barbara home for such a long time. Fredric March played the president of the USA in this film. His widow Florence Eldridge, who had been a big star on Broadway, lived her last years in Montecito next door to me in the most elegant condo this side of Park Avenue New York. She had superb taste — and a lovely collection of Impressionist paintings. Florence had few friends in town so she would spend her holidays with my daughter Tracey and me.

An Ava Gardner film I’d never before seen was The Bribe. Her co-star in this was gorgeous Robert Taylor. Since it took place in a steamy hot Caribbean Island, opening scenes looked like Cartagena, a town I adore. Taylor wore perfectly fitted white linen suits throughout, and real Panama hats which of course come from Ecuador. He looked heavenly!!! My memories of him go back to days when Tracey was about two and we were regulars for lunch at the Brentwood Country Mart in Los Angeles area. There was an unofficial table for us regulars and Robert Taylor was one of us. I’d leave Tracey with him while I went off to get my iced coffee and carrot juice for her, she still hates the stuff, and the divine movie star got sprayed more than once when she spit the carrot juice out. He only laughed and agreed with her. But imagine having Robert Taylor baby sit all the time. Vincent Price was the bad guy in the film and I was reminded of the time in 1964 when he and George Hamilton kindly accepted my invitation to judge the costumes at a Beaux Arts Ball I chaired as a fundraiser for the Art Affiliates of UCSB. Liddy Paulding, the ancient society columnist at the Santa Barbara News-Press for over 40 years, said it was the best party she’d seen in those years. It was held at the old Bliss mansion, now the popular retirement home Casa Dorinda. Ms. Bliss who built the great house, was the daughter of man who invented the very popular patent medicine Castoria. The house was known for having a long bridge on the second floor that Mr. Bliss had to cross to get to Mrs. Bliss’ bedroom. And I’ve been told that door on her side was seldom unlocked.

By The Way
This blog was started to sell my new book and I keep going off on other topics. Please do check out The Beautiful Lady Was A Palace Eunuch at Amazon.com
Acknowledgement:
Kathleen Fetner, Technical Advisor and Friend
Categories My Life
Comments (1)

To Hell & Back

by Beverley
August 20th, 2012

Well dear friends Fluffy is finally back. Thanks to all of you for the notes and cards and visits and flowers. I’ve had no time to write. And right now I’ve got to head off to Victoria for a feather Blow Dry. I’m a fright! Then I’m going to open a bottle of Mommy’s favorite Pol Roger champagne and since she’s still on pain pills I’ll drink it all myself so cheers to all!!

Once we got out of Cottage Hospital then their marvelous Rehab hospital, Mom was doing so well she tried to show off by climbing a step and fell and really messed up her leg. She had so much pain already from her back surgery then this. She cried all the time between the pain and missing Rennie and her medications being messed up.

I asked her for a quote she said if anyone ever tells her “go to hell!! ” she can truthfully answer “I have been to hell and back”!!!

I’m so happy to be home I’m even glad to see Rennie.

This was the bed we had at one of the four hospitals that we’ve been in the last few months. Not exactly like the one we finally have now that we are home. We do have the neck-roll Ayars Mitchell made for us. Ayars is a cool friend of ours. She’s Aunt Susie’s daughter. What’s really cool is that she has a pet scarlet tarantula named Buttons. Ugh!! I’ll keep Rennie over a bright red tarantula!!!

Someone gave mommy a book about Diana Vreeland: “The Eye Has to Travel” I didn’t understand the concept really. And I couldn’t care less if she pronounced her name Diiana or Deeana which some of our friends argued about! What excited me was seeing a picture of mommy’s and my bed. Well actually it wasn’t ours. It was Baroness Pauline de Rothschild‘s bed. Mommy loved it so Baron Philippe had Waldo Fernandez copy it for mommy and me.

By The Way
This blog was started to sell my new book and I keep going off on other topics. Please do check out The Beautiful Lady Was A Palace Eunuch at Amazon.com
Acknowledgement:
Kathleen Fetner, Technical Advisor and Friend
Categories My Life
Comments (0)

Fluffy Here: An Overdue Report

by Beverley
May 18th, 2012

Sitting here I can really keep an eye on Mom

Fluffy here with overdue report,….

Things have been pretty hectic the past ten days. So much confusion with all the nurses coming and going. I follow Mommy all around our house and take care of her. But she was downstairs walking few days ago and she decided to try to do steps out front. Susie and Julie were with her. But suddenly her bad leg buckled under her and she fell!

Rennie isn't much help

We sure didn’t need that after what we’ve been thru! Susie and Julie couldn’t get her up into the wheelchair. But luckily a really nice young man working in Bldg 5 came. He put his arms around under Mom’s arms and clasped them in front of her and he told her to clasp hers on top of his and in one swift movement he had her straight up and into her wheel chair. They decided he must have had paramedic training. He really rescued Mom. Then last night Mommy went to find something In her closet and she left her walker at the door. Next thing she was calling for Susie. She fell again. We are really watching her now. And the doctor is getting strict. She’s been thru so much we are forbidden to upset her. So Rennie and I have to be friends for her sake. She was however very upset her friend Nonie De Limur died.

Jiko and Martin Blakeway were home from Japan for 3 days before they left for Geneva. They came to see us and brought Mommy the poached pears Jiko makes that Mommy loves. I'm checking it out.

Ladys who spends nights with us really makes her laugh. She has a heavy accent from Ecuador and talks very fast. I don’t understand her sometimes but Mommy and aunt Susie do.

Today we got a coffee maker and we had a Coffee Party. Mommy said Ecuadorian way of making coffee is like she gets in Paris. And we had whole wheat English muffins and scrambled eggs. Bob and Carol Jackson bring us fresh eggs every week from their fancy chickens. I can’t wait to tell Babji Mom ate a whole big breakfast. All her doctors have been worried because she wouldn’t eat. But Ladys makes it fun.

Mommy says this blue coral looks like mountains she saw in Yunnan. Doesn't look like mountains to me!

Well guess that’s our news for now.

Most important thing is doctors have found pills that control Mom’s horrendous pain. And she is laughing again.

Love,
Fluffy

Guess I won't sample the apples after all. I don't like the look in his eyes.

By The Way
This blog was started to sell my new book and I keep going off on other topics. Please do check out The Beautiful Lady Was A Palace Eunuch at Amazon.com
Acknowledgement:
Kathleen Fetner, Technical Advisor and Friend
Categories My Life
Comments (3)

Fluffy Here: Recovery Progress Report!

by Beverley
May 4th, 2012

Mommy has strange things in this house. Rennie says this is something called a dragon I'm checking out.

Sorry I’ve been out of touch but I’ve had my hands full. We came home a week and half ago and the house has been really crazy. Different nurses three times a day & Rennie barking madly at all of them especially the 11:pm shift. Aunt Susie manages to stay calm & get everything organized. She’s the greatest.

Aunt Susie was holding me up to make friends with Rennie Nurse Juliette was holding Rennie

Uncle Johnny came to visit us & I flew on to is head. He was a good sport. Aunt Susie & Mommy couldn't stop laughing.

We had one really bad night last week. At 4:30 in morning all these big firemen came & took Mommy back to Cottage Hospital. I rode in the ambulance. Rennie had to stay home. She was really jealous I got to go. We came home the next morning.

Mommy has really hurt a lot. She hasn’t been any fun. Thank goodness Aunt Susie is here all the time. Then today my pal Babji came to see us. That’s Dr. Babji Mesipam. He really scolded Mommy. He told her she could keep lying in bed hurting letting the nurses do everything for her or she could get up & force herself to walk & do things for herself no matter how much she hurts & get strong & well.

Well he really knew how to get to Mom. After he left she dressed herself. She uses something like a fishing pole with a giant tweezers on the end to reach her slacks & put them on. What a production. Rennie & I laughed ourselves silly watching her.

Rennie is no help at all! And she's so long she takes up most of Mommy's bed.

Then Aunt Susie, nurse Julia & I took her out in the sunshine for a walk. Julia pushed her in the wheelchair & I rode on Mommy’s shoulder. When we got to the level Mommy used her walker & walked a long way looking at all the flowers. Then we rode home. And we all had dinner in the living room instead of in bed. The sun was shining in on us. Mommy’s wheelchair was in a corner where she could look at our pretty Japanese terrace that our friend Mike Flaherty is taking care of for us and all the flowers people have sent in the living room And she was laughing instead of crying from the pain. So it was a really good day finally I’m happy to report.

Well, Pip pip as Uncle Richard Mineards would say. I don’t know what it means but it sounds funny.

Fluffy

By The Way
This blog was started to sell my new book and I keep going off on other topics. Please do check out The Beautiful Lady Was A Palace Eunuch at Amazon.com
Acknowledgement:
Kathleen Fetner, Technical Advisor and Friend
Categories My Life
Comments (3)

Fluffy Here: We’re Home!

by Beverley
April 22nd, 2012

Wow have I been in trouble since you last heard from me. Big trouble!  But I got bored with all the hospitals. First thing I did was land on Mom’s scrambled eggs when Ken brought her breakfast in and I refused to get off them. Ken is an old friend of ours. He was postmaster of our Montecito post office for years.  He brought breakfast every day cause he is something called a volunteer.  Seventeen years he’s been a volunteer at Rehab. Pretty boring if you ask me. That’s why I jumped in the eggs.

This is our friend Ken. Everyone knows him from the Montecito Post Office.

I was a big help to Mommy in the gym however. I sat in front of her on the arm rower and kept saying “faster faster faster!!!” But I liked the barbells best. I had my own little pink one.

Faster Mommy. Faster!

No Fluffy you cannot take your little pink barbell home with us. Read the sign.

Then they told us we were going home. Aunt Susie got us packed up so fast. Everyone came to say goodbye to me. I liked all the attention. But when we got home no one paid any attention to me. Everyone was fussing over Mommy. Nurses coming and going. Aunt Susie making labeled containers of pills and charts.  A physical therapist making Mom walk. Friends bringing food. Flowers everywhere But no one paid any attention to me.

Scruffy visits the patients every day.

All the nurses came to say goodbye to me. Here's Heather kissing me goodbye.

Nick was a really cool guy. He helped Mom so much when she hurt the worst.

Mommy really liked Barbara Hill especially after she found out Barbara got into China in 1973, two years before Mommy.

So I hid. All night and all the next day and the next night. Mommy was in tears. Aunt Susie went all through her car and all the bags again and again. I finally decided they’d learned to appreciate me.  So the second night real late I flew on to the pillow next to Mommy and when she woke up she saw me & she was so happy. And Aunt Susie was so happy. The nurses were happy. And now everyone is paying attention to me again!

Everyone was so happy to have me back they are giving me anything I want.

No one has figured out where I hid when I was lost.

By The Way
This blog was started to sell my new book and I keep going off on other topics. Please do check out The Beautiful Lady Was A Palace Eunuch at Amazon.com
Acknowledgement:
Kathleen Fetner, Technical Advisor and Friend
Categories My Life
Comments (1)

Fluffy Here!

by Beverley
April 14th, 2012
Dr Richard Kahmann

Dr. Richard Kahmann

Met doctor who operated on mommy. Dr. Richard Kahmann. He’s a cool guy. He flies just like me. Well he flies a plane & I’ve got my own wings. Mom likes him cause she thinks he did a good job but mainly because he was interested in the little bound feet she’s always talking about. Dr. Babji Mesipam comes too. Babji & I are old pals. He’s our regular doctor. And so many nice nurses who are always smiling are helping mom not hurt so much.

I hope she doesn’t get spoiled & expect that kind of service from me ’cause I’ll be on my own for awhile. Rennie won’t be allowed home for awhile because shes too heavy. She weighs 12 pounds & I’m light as a feather. Ha ha ha!

Now we’re at another hospital called Rehab. One thing I’ve noticed in all of them they talk so much about the bathroom. Would you believe in one place they rolled the bathroom right up to Mommy’s bed. I don’t understand it. I just go wherever I happen to be standing like Rennie does!

Mommy had a cool roommate first few days in the Rehab Hospital. Her name was Barbara Gordon. The two of them giggled over everything. Stuff I didn’t think was funny. Even when they were moaning for pain medicine. I liked Barbara’s husband Collin too. He talked like Barbara. They were from England. I landed on Collin’s head one night & he just laughed. Then yesterday they went home and we got what I thought was a woman but Mom called her a nightmare. She was really loud & rude to all my nice friends here who take such good care of Mommy & that made both of us mad. THEN she snores all night. Someone said like a volcano erupting.

Well all my friends here went to work on it today & we’ve got a cozy little nest of our own. Aunt Susie (Mommy calls her St Suzie) got us all moved while we were in the gym doing weird things. Then Linda came with our mail & stuff & we all had lunch together. Aunt Susie brings her own every day. She sort of lives with us now & Uncle Johnny & J J & Ayers say its okay cause they want Mommy to get well.

Wonder if there’s any Easter candy left in here?

Fluffy

Ugh!!! It's bitter little pills.

By The Way
This blog was started to sell my new book and I keep going off on other topics. Please do check out The Beautiful Lady Was A Palace Eunuch at Amazon.com
Acknowledgement:
Kathleen Fetner, Technical Advisor and Friend
Categories My Life
Comments (3)
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