memorial services

Death in Indio

On February 8, 1948, Bob Williams married his sweetheart, the Lebanese-American Lillian Abrams.  My sister Arlene, 9 years old, was the flower girl.  The wedding was held in Indio, and yesterday I attended Bob’s memorial service and Catholic Mass in Indio.  My mom Selma didn’t attend the wedding because she was hugely pregnant with me.  Well, on February 18 I was born, just a month after Mahatma Ghandi was killed in India.  At any rate, Lill (as we called her) became my godmother when I was baptized Catholic a few months later.  Lill and Bob went on to have 8 kids, all younger than me.  So their family was younger than ours.  I had really not kept up with the younger children.  The one closest in age to me who I knew the best was Chris.  He died in his fifties, regrettably from alcoholism and cancer.  Bob Williams was a wonderful guy: gregarious, warm, genuine, and very kind.  He ran a men’s clothing store in Indio for years.

The memorial was a wonderful experience for me.  I connected with some cousins whom I had never met, as our family stopped going to Indio when I was in high school.  At first I was just a stranger who looked like Billy Joel, but when I told them that: 1. My older sister was flower girl at their parents’ wedding 2. Their mom is my Godmother. 3. Our grandmothers were SISTERS, they paid a lot of attention to what I was saying.  The experience meant a lot to me, and I hope it meant a lot to them.  The added bonus was driving there and back (over 6 hours) with my first cousin Linda Williamson.  We shared family history, our pasts, and a wide range of experiences.

I was perhaps most moved by seeing pictures of my late cousin Chris Williams, who died way too young.  I never knew him as an adult, and am sad for that fact.  I’m only happy I could speak with his younger siblings and think about what might have been.  But with the death came the life of new relationships with cousins.  For that I am grateful.

Memorial for Rick Abramson

Today, Sunday , March 21 I attended a memorial service for Rick Abramson, aka Mister Rick, brother of attorney Leslie Abramson, who represented the Menendez brothers and other famous bad boys.  The memorial was held at Dan Tana’s bar and restaurant in West Hollywood, and it was packed.  I didn’t know Rick well, had seen him at several parties.  I remember him telling me how he had sold novelty items to Larry Miller of Sit N Sleep mattress store famous in LA environs for its advertisements, and Larry Miller’s tag line, “I’ll beat anyone’s advertised prices or your mattress is FREEEEE.”  Larry was there at the bar, Leslie was not.  It was hard to hear people give their remembrances of Mister Rick, though the ones I heard were generally funny…and touching.  Rick Abramson died at 65 from lung cancer.  He might have been surprised at the crowd.  I doubt if he ever thought I would attend, but funerals are like that.  Not only people who knew the deceased attend, but people who knew people who knew them also.  I will always remember Mister Rick as a warm little New Yorker who liked to have a good time.  RIP.