This
story is a sad one. Angie’s longtime friendship with Isabel came to an unhappy
and unexpected ending. They met while working for the Foster Wheeler
Corporation in Manhattan not long after the end of WW II. Over
the years, they vacationed at Sun Valley , Idaho Jackson Hole , Wyoming Great Smokey Mountains Tennessee ; and Havana , Cuba
His sales success continued. The owners
made him a partner in the firm. Later on, he opened his own printing company
located in Yonkers . Confident his business would flourish,
he borrowed millions of dollars to pay for German-made four-color printing
presses. His business thrived for a number of years, during which time he made
a great deal of money. Then, conditions changed. He faced strong competition
from around the country while saddled with a Printer’s Union contract that
forced him to pay some of his unskilled workforce wages in excess of $100,000 a
year. His company lost money three years running and his personal assets were
in jeopardy. When the Business Manager refused to allow the Union to vote on a new contract, Fred shut the
doors and quit the business, putting many people out of work.
Years earlier, their daughter, Kathy, had
moved to Arizona . She became a highly paid sales
executive for the Xerox Corporation and later by Hewlett-Packard. She and her
husband, Tim McFarland, had three boys. Fred and Isabel purchased land in Scottsdale on which to build a retirement home.
The Weir’s had a brilliant son, Fred Jr.,
who graduated from Rochester Polytechnic Institute. He settled in New York City , working for one of the major network
television studios. He helped produce an award winning film of the Winter
Olympics in Calgary . His wife, a native of Buffalo , hated the New York City area. She moved back to Buffalo to be near her parents. He bought a
plane, learned to fly, and commuted there to see her on weekends. He finally
gave in, quit his job, moved to Buffalo and began working for the State
Department. The government put him in charge of a computer program to track
Canadian immigration data.
Fred entertained lavishly during his
business years. He thought nothing of providing his clients with expensive
Broadway theater tickets or paying for vacation fishing trips to Florida . Over the years, Isabel became an ardent
and proficient angler. They often vacationed at Montauk Point, Long Island to
fish. Other times, they spent weekends in Princeton , at a ritzy but cozy inn. They enjoyed
spending weekends at one of the fine New York hotels, taking in a show or two while
dining in the most upscale restaurant they could find. Fred rode a limo to work.
Isabel stayed at home, but had a Cadillac to drive should she need to go out. Could life be better?
After he quit his business, they moved to
Scottsdale into the retirement home they had built
on their property. We saw them a number of times at their swanky house,
situated on one acre, complete with pool. Isabel cooked gourmet dishes. It
suited their tastes. Whenever we dined with them, Isabel would prepare some
special appetizers. They were wine connoisseurs, whose dinner selection they placed
on ice in a silver bucket. The utilized only the finest crystal and china
whenever we dined with them. Afterwards, we would sit in their family room in
front of a fire, drinking and talking for hours. Fred, an avid reader, always
had the latest book at hand, ready to discuss it or any other subject that
might come to mind. Classical or operatic music would be heard in the
background.
Fred had a trademark laugh, a booming
bellow. It rocked the room. Angie recalls how he embarrassed her by shouting
out her name while on the subway one evening.
I liked Fred and Isabel quite a lot. However,
we could not reciprocate their lavish hospitality. Nor could we afford to take
them to dinner. They would only eat at expensive places far beyond our budget. Their
wealth had created too big a gap for us to enjoy their company. Their
conversations always led back to the fact they had dough-re-mi. They just could
not help themselves, I guess. As an example, they made a point of saying, while
touring Vienna, they purchased the best seats in the house to see an opera on
New Year’s Eve, followed by dinner at a five-star restaurant where the wine
cost more than the national debt.
A wide gulf now separated our lifestyles.
We stopped seeing each other. Our close friendship deteriorated into sending
perfunctory Christmas cards.
In 1999, we met them by accident in
Sedona. They went there specifically to dine at some fancy place that served
the best trout in the world. We said we would join them, our treat. We had
planned to have just some simple lunch, probably a hamburger somewhere, but
that did not match their style.
As it turned out, the restaurant did not
have the fish on the menu, so they had to settle for something mundane. During
the luncheon, they dropped a bombshell of information on us. They said that
Kathy divorced Tim. Her decision devastated them. The irony did not escape s as
Fred and Isabel had frequently criticized other divorced relatives of theirs.
We were surprised at how old and weak Isabel
looked. She had emphysema, a result of her lifelong smoking habit. Fred, on the
other hand, looked the picture of health. We parted without expressing any
plans to meet again. As it turned out, we never saw either of them afterwards.
In 2000 Isabel sent us a Christmas card postmarked
Buffalo . We phoned her son and left a message. We
wanted to know why his father’s name did not appear on the card. He never returned the call.
Time went by. In June 2001, we called
Tim, Kathy’s divorced husband. He said Fred had died some time ago, and
suggested we call Kathy to get the details. This news knocked our socks off.
When we spoke to Kathy, she told us that
her father entered St. Luke’s hospital in March 1999 for a problem related to
his back. He went home after receiving some treatment, but had to return when
the condition worsened. Complications set in, and he died in the hospital of a
pulmonary embolism on Memorial Day. She arranged to inter his ashes in a
Veteran’s Cemetery in Long
Island , near
where they once lived.
She then went on to say that her mother
moved to Buffalo to live with Fred Jr. Shortly after
Christmas, Isabel’s health had deteriorated rapidly and she showed signs of
dementia. Kathy said her mother suffered a stroke and died in January of this
year. Again, the news flabbergasted us. Kathy relayed this information without
emotion. She said she was sorry we did not know that her father had died. She
assumed her mother had informed us of this fact, or we had seen his obituary.
This litany of sad news depressed Angie who
would have liked to talk with Isabel one more time. She regrets that Isabel had
not told us of Fred’s death. Had she done so, Angie might have been able to
comfort her. It amazed us that neither Kathy nor Fred Jr., thought to call us
when their father died.
Fred and Isabel were inseparable soul
mates, made for each other. They enjoyed each other’s company immensely. They
were proud parents of two very gifted children, extremely successful in
business, and knew how to enjoy life. They deserved a better ending.
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