More gone

It seems I’ve had a spate of deaths among my clients, most of whom over the years, have become good friends. A couple of weeks ago, it was Maynard DeWitt. In this age of busy lives, Maynard had become a voice at the end of the phone over the past few years. It was easy, though, to conjure up his face in my mind when I talked to him, and I could see his smile. The last time I actually saw him was at a party at my home a couple of years ago. I still have the photos from that event and his easy-going style is evident. His death was unexpected and he will be missed.

As shocked as I was to receive the call about Maynard, little could have prepared me for the call that came Sunday evening. When I answered the phone, I thought it was just a client – knowing that I work every day – with a question. Instead, it was to inform me that his father, Hank Bolin, had died that afternoon. Ironically enough, the last time I saw Hank was at the funeral of another client last summer, the one who had introduced Hank to me. Hank was one of the appointments I really looked forward to during the season. We shared a love of music and politics – he had been a city councilman in NY – and spent most of our time talking about stuff like that, leaving just a few minutes to actually get down to business. During one of those conversations, Hank shared with me what it was like to be in the FBI at the time of the Kennedy assassination, something I have studied quite a bit. I’m told he was looking forward to our meeting, which had been scheduled for yesterday, because he had heard about the picture of me and Bill Clinton that I have in my office.

A number of years ago, I started a project to take pictures of my clients and put them on a wall in my office. The project was prompted by a client of mine who used to travel a lot and would send me pictures of himself and his wife in exotic places. I used to stick the pictures up on a bulleting board that my clients passed on their way to my office. So many of them started questioning as to why their picture wasn’t on the wall that I went out and got a Polaroid-type camera, took their pictures and put them up. I ran out of film and stopped taking the pictures a couple of years ago. So many of those pictures are now priceless to me. And the guy who prompted me to start the picture-taking? He’s gone now, too.

I need to get some more film.