Happy Birthday Uncle Dick

Today is my Uncle's birthday and yesterday his family threw him a fabulous 80th birthday party. His clan was all there to wish him the happiest of birthdays. His great grandchildren sang him a precious birthday song. We ate Mexican food and lots of cake. Even the weather was perfect.

I have some precious memories of my Uncle while I was growing up. First of all, my uncle has always had a fabulous sense of humor and he was always playing practical jokes and making all the kids laugh. He is still making us laugh. As you can see from the sun visor that he is wearing (complete with the fake gray surfer hairdo) that it is clear he can laugh at himself. This is a very endearing quality.

He has always been a great family man and terrific role model. I remember my visits to see my cousins and my uncle getting up before the crack of dawn to go running. He would come home and make us breakfast after his run. At night before bed we would all kneel around my aunt and uncles bed and he would lead us in prayer. This simple ritual has a powerful effect in a child's life.

He and my aunt kept my sister and I connected to my father's side of the family. He always welcomed us into his home for long summer visits, even though he had eight of his own children to care for, there was always room for us. Can you just imagine the noise level? That's love!

I remember one trip to family camp where I became very cold and my uncle gave me his pull over sweater to wear by the camp fire. I never wanted to take that sweater off. It made me feel safe and loved and I have carried that memory into adulthood. That is a very comforting memory.

Happy, happy birthday to you Uncle Dick!

A Life of Dreams

Below is a photo of my friend Sybil with her mother out for lunch at the Hamlet Gardens...a very lovely day. Now both Sybil's mother and her mothers favorite eatery are gone.


Dr. Sever loved flowers. She had a favorite florist who always knew exactly what Dr. Sever would love.
When friends heard Dr. Severs life was coming to a close they sent beautiful flowers to comfort both Dr. Sever and her daughter...my dear friend of nearly 40 years or more.

On Dr. Severs balcony there were many varieties of flowers, gardenias, bougainvilleas, azaleas, and a Meyer lemon tree to boot. There was even a Christmas cactus that Dr. Sever had managed to keep alive for at least 35 years. This was especially meaningful to me because my sister who passed away many years ago had given it to Sybil as a gift. When Sybil left for New York after college Sybil gave it to her mother to care for. Dr.Sever had a green thumb and she transplanted that Christmas cactus several times and now it is quite large and very healthy and now that Sybil's mother has ascended to the great garden in the sky, the Christmas cactus was sent home with me. I sure hope that cactus loves me as much as it did Dr. Sever.

Dr. Sever and my own mother had many things in common and there love of flowers and plants was at the top of the list.

As Sybil and I and her mother's housekeeper and caregiver packed up Dr.Sever's belongings it became clear that Dr. Sever had dreams of being an elegant hostess. Another passion of Dr. Sever's was her love of cross stitch. The two tablecloths displayed in the photos below are just two of the many, many beautiful things Dr. Sever made. My mother also loved making beautiful things by hand...yet another thing they had in common.

This red, white and blue tablecloth is very much like one my mother gave to me years ago.


This lovely music box is one that Sybil bought for her mother while traveling in Switzerland. Sybil sent it home with me and you will see it displayed on a dressing table that also belonged to Sybil's mother and was also sent home with me.

I know it's going to seem hard to believe, but, the Blue Danube dishes you see in these photos are exactly the same dishes that my own mother served many a meal on while I was growing up...yet one more thing Dr.Sever and my mother loved.
The photo below is of Sybil's mothers sofa covered with costume jewelery that belonged to her mother.
This dressing table looks very much like one my mother had. You would think Dr. Sever and my mother were sisters by the things they both loved. Sybil sent this too home with me because she lives in London and could not take it with her. Sybil, if you are reading this, anytime you move back to the States you can come and claim this lovely dressing table that must have been a joy for your mother to own.

Look at all these glamorous jewels. Dr. Sever never went anywhere where she didn't look her best.



The map below is a map of Paris that hung in Dr. Severs entry way. I have always loved this map, but even more so since Sybil and I had a fabulous trip to Paris in 2008. Sybil sent this home with me too and I will cherish it always.

Dr. Sever had many bookshelves filled to the brim with interesting books. She was an avid reader and surrounded herself with knowledge, art, beauty, good food, all the best things in life.

It's funny how material things can really reveal so much about a person. Those possessions hold secrets about what one holds dear.

My own mother passed away in May three years ago just a couple of days later than Dr. Sever. I imagine these ladies to making everything beautiful and elegant in the Great Beyond, helping to prepare their daughter's mansion in the sky.

The Loss of a Mother

This week has been a rough one. My mother would have been 87 on May the 14Th, but she passed away just three short years ago on May 19Th.

On May 14Th I made a journey to Beverly Hills where I grew up because the mother of a dear childhood friend was on her journey to the next world.

I have posted this story below before, but felt that to honor my friends mother I would post it again. My friend Sybil's mother left this world the afternoon of May 17, 2010. She would have been 89 in July.

In the photo below my mother is on the left and Sybil's mother, Dr. Elfrieda Sever, is on the right. They were two glamorous babes in their hay day! Two German blonds on very similar paths.

I was so glad I took this trip to see Elfrieda over Christmas when she was still well enough to enjoy a visit.

This is what I wrote after our lovely visit:

Yesterday I took a trip to Beverly Hills to visit my friend Sybil's mother, Dr. Elfrieda Sever. You see her in the picture above, on the right, with my mother on the left. Elfrieda (I called her Dr. Sever when I was growing up) and Sybil, her only daughter, spent many a Thanksgiving and Christmas celebrating with us.

Sybil and I met when we were just 15 years old. We lived on Young Drive and Sybil and her mother lived on Durant. We met in cooking class. Sybil was new to Beverly Hills, moving from San Francisco. As we all know, moving away from friends and all that is familiar when you are fifteen is no easy transition. I liked Sybil right away, but she had an instant distrust for me, thinking I was much too sweet to be for real. Ah well... she knows the truth now. I really have always thought of Sybil like a sister and I believe she thinks of me that way too.

Our mothers were both from Germany and both single. My mother had worked in San Francisco when she first worked for Elizabeth Arden. They had a lot in common. We introduced them and they became quick friends. They spoke German to each other and so much of the information I was anxious to hear about their adult lives was hidden from me. So, they both remained mysterious and glamorous, with their blond hair and their distinctly European ways.

It's truly wonderful to still have friends that know my history and share my story.

Sybil lives in London now, and has her very own glamorous life, but her mother still lives in Beverly Hills and is so far away from the daughter she holds so dear. After losing my own mother in May of 2007, I have a new appreciation for my friend Sybil's mother. Most of my mother's friends are gone now, so it was especially meaningful for me to share a little holiday cheer with Elfrieda.

When I first arrived, Elfrieda was just at the end of having a lovely massage, by a masseuse that Sybil hired, to make sure her mother was properly pampered. She told me the masseuse comes once a week. What a luxury! My mother would have definitely approved.

Elfrieda took great pride in showing me the latest, beautifully hand embroidered tablecloth she was working on. She showed off her beautiful orchids and told me she couldn't live without flowers. She had me look at the beautiful bougainvillea and wonderful Meyer lemon tree she was growing in pots on the balcony. Her lemon tree had twenty lemons ready to pick. I was so glad, because I wanted to bring her lemons off my tree, knowing she loves lemons, but they weren't quite ready to pick. We had tea and strawberry cake together and then she became a little tired. She had, after all, just had a relaxing massage.

Rest in peace, dear Elfrieda

Tuesday tea or coffee time

I've been at the beach now since Friday, so I'm having my Tuesday tea, well actually coffee, here on the California coast, under my umbrella. I don't want to go home, but today is my last day to soak up the ocean air. I hope you all had a fabulous Mother's Day!

Interior Reflection

Why do we love certain houses, and why do they seem to love us? It is the warmth of our individual hearts reflected in our surroundings. -T.J. Robsjohn-Gibbings

To My Dear Mama

I published this post last year just two years after my mother passed away and I decided I would post it again to celebrate the life my mother lived so well.

Happy Mother's Day to all of my fellow bloggers, many of whom have also lost their dear mothers.

This was my mother at about the age of 12.


This is a photo of my mother the day I got married (March 17th,1973). She passed away two years ago on May 19th. She was the single most influential woman in my life.

Below is a photo of my mother when when I was just a new born.

Below is a photo of my mother holding the first of three granddaughters. She loved her granddaughters more than life.

As she aged she became more beautiful with each passing year.

Hegge Rozier-May14,1923-May19,2007

The following is what I wrote and read at my Mother's funeral:

When I was in grammar school I remember coming home to the scent of my mother’s lipstick and her Channel #5 Perfume lingering in the hallway. She always smelled delicious. To this day her scent brings happy memories of home flooding back. I remember the feeling of cream on the doorknobs of our home where she left her mark. Mom never went to bed without curlers in her hair and cream on her face. She was known for her classic good looks and gorgeous skin, however, all vanity aside, my mom had the secret to real lasting beauty. It was the what she believed about health and aging. She always said “you are only as old as you think you are”. When asked her age she would reply “Can you keep a secret?” the reply would always be yes ( no one can ever admit to not being able to keep a secret) to which she would always reply “So can I”. To my sweet mama age was irrelevant.
Mom knew how to live well and how to celebrate life down to the simplest occasion. My sister Nonie and I were raised on classical music and candlelit dinners. Sometimes mom would have to take private clients in the evenings and on Saturdays in order to make ends meet, but we always had dinner together with good food, beautiful table linens and flowers from the garden.
After Nonie and I were fast asleep my mom would polish our shoes and prepare lunches for the next day. She was a tireless worker with more energy than anyone I’ve ever met with the exception of my husband. I’ve always joked that I married my mother. I believe it was all my mother’s best qualities that attracted me to Richard.
Above all else my mother loved being a mother and not just to my sister and me but to many of my closest friends she was known as Mutti (German for Mother). Mom lost her own mother at the tender age of eight and I believe my grandmother must have passed on some awesome mother energy to my mom.
Mom was an incredible role model for Nonie and me. Not only was she a fabulous mother but she was also an incredible friend.
In fact, I am still in touch with many of my childhood friends today because of my mother. Before the age of e-mail my mother was a terrific letter writer and kept in touch with friends all over the world including many of my friends. Although fiercely independent Mom was deeply aware of how much we need each other.
She taught me most of what I know about loss. When mom
lost her father, just before being reunited with him after years of separation, she exhibited unwavering faith and strength. She believed that everything happens for a reason and in it’s own time, and we are not to question the Almighty’s plan or waste any of life’s precious time feeling sorry for ourselves. I had a difficult time with that one but I trusted my mother’s words.
She suffered much loss in her life. She was the last of her siblings to survive and in the last few years she had lost countless life long friends all younger than herself.
When my father passed away, my mother showed up in Fresno against my father’s wishes to say her goodbyes. There was no convincing her not to come, because she understood closure and forgiveness -- not to mention she was the most doggedly stubborn person you’d ever want to meet. Somehow she just knew it was
extremely important.
Her most tragic loss, of course, was when she lost my dear sister to a brain tumor in 1978. Both my mother’s life and my own were changed forever in an instant My mother never really recovered. So many conflicting emotions lay just beneath the surface and yet she lived to see her three granddaughters grow into beautiful young ladies and to reach a lifelong goal of accompanying each one of them, separately, on a trip to her homeland (by the way, not an easy journey for any of them) but she did it to share a piece of herself and her history with them. Mom lived to witness the birth of her three great-grandsons. She was so elated to be alive to welcome her boys into the world.
My mother’s life was a gift to all who had the pleasure to meet her. I will always love her, now and forever.
Be at peace, my sweet mama.

Home a Haven in a Hectic World

"Every spirit builds itself a house, and beyond its house a world, and beyond its world a haven. Know then that world exits for you." Ralph Waldo Emerson

Photo from Country Living Magazine