A Weekend Among Friends

Just back from Memby's viewing and funeral service in Ohio. I was lucky to get out of Pittsburgh this morning with the freezing rain conditions. Jet Blue cancelled the flight and with the help of my private, personal and very handsome travel agent, I booked on American and got in. I was overwhelmed by the numbers of people (hundreds) who lined up to view Memby's close casket and console Jeff and her incredibly large and warm family. I think all of Youngstown was there. She was so loved. The funeral the next day was SRO as well and beautifully handled with music and prayer and speech and celebration for her life. The most amazing part of this trip was meeting so many of Jeff Saver's friends from childhood and high school. They took me into their group and made me feel a part of them. They all knew our work and of course Jeff has spoken of me, but to meet them was akin to meeting his family back in 1995 when they all came to see Dodsworth at Casa Manana in Ft. Worth Texas. His whole immediate family was there (including his late parents) and they took me into their tribe and we sang them freshly minted songs from the score and cried together from the beauty of it. It's an occasion I never will forget. My family was not there. But it wasn't just that I was jealous of his closeness but that for the first time I saw that such families exist. And this weekend I saw how longlasting friendships can nurture and heal as well...Jeff is very special and has surrounded himself with special people. I am proud to part of the circle. It's going to be very hard for him now to come back to his life, but I am in hopes that Time after Time will come back to life and we will get to work again. Meanwhile I want to have Jeff a tune for the lyric I wrote about Kander and Ebb and present it to John Kander for his 80th birthday. This would be therapeutic for Jeff I think. I hope so anyway. May I just say this goodbye to Memby who was a wonderful wife to Jeff and a great mother to Mariela and Rosalia. They are her legacy.