I remember when The Pearl was an actual brewery and Pearl Beer was a thing.
Now it's a vibrant community of shops, apartments, weekly farmers' market, The Hotel Emma, all kinds of eateries, access to the River Walk Extension, lots of strolling people and their dogs.
After yesterday, I'll always think of The Pearl as the place where Carolyn lives. Yesterday, we had a wonderful reunion at The Pearl where she now has a new apartment near The Hotel Emma.
We hadn't seen each other in half a lifetime, back in the 70s and 80s when our husbands and Frank(Joy's Frank) were professors at SAC until retirement. Carolyn was Vice President of Santa Rosa Hospital, and they lived at Canyon Lake. I always thought of Carolyn and Ray--and their daughter, Candy--as the real deal love story family. Ray and Carolyn had married when she was 18 and he was 19, and when he died six weeks ago, they had been married for nearly 60 years.
In September, I began following Ray's heartbreaking last days in daily letters from Carolyn. After living and working with cancer for six years, the final days got so unbearable that Carolyn wrote, "I beg for release for this wonderful man."
In early October, she moved into a beautiful light-filled apartment at the Pearl, one floor down from Candy and Carlos. We took our muffins from Bakery Lorraine to the balcony and got a start on catching up on since our last in-person visits.
I loved seeing Ray's art work on the walls--so playful and smart and engaging. The more we talked about him and his work, the more I regretted not having spent much more time together. Here are two: (She let me take photos as she did her phone interview with the humane society.)
The first is called OLD PAINT--and refers to both the horse and the paint can.
The second is called THREE GRACES--and includes a photo of Carolyn, Candy and Marissa--Carolyn's granddaughter.
When Carolyn finished her extensive phone interview, she said, "It would be easier to adopt a child than it's been to adopt this sweet feral kitty."
So today she's picking up a kitty she's naming Annabelle. She passed the long interview with flying colors!
In the middle of the night, I re-read the final page of a book she's writing, and it was so moving that I wanted to share it with you all:
He made me laugh every day of our lives together, even in the midst of this horrible cancer and his death. He loved without a doubt his daughter, granddaughter and their men. He loved the various dogs and kitties (particularly Begonia, who slept on his chest until she died at age 22). He loved this world. He loved me. He loved me. He loved me. How privileged I am that he loved me. He was the light in my life.
