Happy New Year! It is another grey day in Shepherdstown, WV, which has had nothing but a string of grey days since I arrived here almost two weeks ago. The day, while grey exteriorly is sunny inside, surrounded by old friends. My nephew, Kevin, is prepping to make bacon to go with waffles. His wife, Michelle, is reading the news on her phone and I am beginning my letter while waiting for a call.
My friends, Medora Heilbron and Meryl Marshall-Daniels, and I have convened most Thursdays or Fridays for almost fifteen years to share our week’s experiences, our highs and lows and to love and support each other. It is a gift the universe has given us and we have helped each other through a whole variety of things and have celebrated our successes and supported each other in our bumps in the road.
When one of us is traveling and the call doesn’t happen, it doesn’t feel like the week is quite right. It’s good to be starting 2016 with a call.
I can’t quite believe it is 2016. I never thought I would live this long but here I am, slowing moving into old age and having a better time of it than I thought I would.
My stomach bug has lifted and I woke this morning in fine fettle, eager to burst into the new year. I texted friends to wish them Happy New Years and then came down and made coffee and read another 25 pages of my textbook.
The world, of course, is not coursing as quietly or as joyfully as my life in Shepherdstown.
A suicide bomber struck a restaurant in Kabul last night. Five were wounded in the French restaurant, one of the few still catering to foreigners.
During New Year’s Eve celebrations in Dubai, a luxury hotel and apartment building caught fire and competed for attention with the fireworks at midnight. Officials are investigating the cause of the fire. 12 were injured but there appear to have been no fatalities.
Wayne Rogers, “Trapper John” from the TV series “MASH” passed away last night, surrounded by family. A much beloved star, he was also a shrewd investor and successfully managed money for a variety of clients while also acting.
Less than an hour ago, it was announced that Natalie Cole, one of the great voices of the 20th century and the daughter of the legendary Nat King Cole, passed away. She was 65.
In a Tel Aviv pub, two were killed and four seriously injured by a gunman. Investigators are working to determine if it was a crime or terrorism. Isn’t terrorism a crime? Yes, I think so.
In Turkey, President Erdogan, who was Prime Minister for ten years, is seeking to change Turkey’s constitution to make the President, not the Prime Minister, the senior position. An example he quoted: Hitler’s Germany. He did not elaborate. No wonder the world thinks he may not be committed to democracy.
What I am committed to today is to enjoy feeling well, my spirits boosted by the sun breaking through the clouds and the camaraderie of friends and family.
Letter from the Vineyard 
Letter From Claverack 11 03 2016 Crowing proud…
November 4, 2016Kevin James Malone is not my nephew. He is the child of my oldest friend, Sarah McCormick Malone, whom I have known since we were three. There is a picture of the two of us on her parents’ couch in our rain gear on our first day of kindergarten. [We were adorable.] We were already fast friends then and have been ever since.
From the time he was born, I was around about as much as any of his maternal uncles as the Malones lived in New Mexico and Michael, Bill and John, her three brothers, lived in the Midwest and on the East Coast, where her parents had settled.
On one wonderful Mother’s Day weekend, Sarah and Kevin came to visit “Uncle Mat” when I lived in Santa Monica. We flew kites on the beach and road around in my convertible, watched movies late into the night, Kevin outlasting both his mother and me. Kevin was maybe three years old.
When the eldest McCormick daughter, Mary Clare, celebrated her 25th anniversary to her husband Jim Eros [I had brunch with them last weekend], her parents threw a dinner at their country club on Long Island.
It seems to me that I was still living in California but was in New York at that moment and John and Eileen, Sarah’s parents, told everyone there would be a surprise guest. [Me.]
Kevin was then about eight or nine then. At some point in the evening Kevin went to his grandmother and asked her why Uncle Mat had a different last name than her other brothers, leaving Eileen to awkwardly attempt to explain.
Forever captured in the photo album of my brain is Kevin Malone walking up to me at that dinner, dressed in a suit and tie, putting his hands on his hips and looking up at me and demanding to know: what do you mean you’re not one of my mother’s brothers?
It was a hiccup in our relationship we survived.
Years later, when he and his father and I were visiting him at work, we met his boss. Kevin introduced his father and then me and said, this is my Uncle Mat.
When he was married to Michelle, I gave a toast at the Rehearsal Dinner. We shopped for a shirt for him that day, together.
Kevin is not my nephew by blood but he is my nephew by choice. His and mine. I refer to him as my nephew when I talk about him to other people. There is no other way to describe my relationship with him or his to me.
When he emailed me yesterday, along with others in his family, to announce he had passed the Bar in the District of Columbia, I felt so proud and glad. Today I learned he has also passed the Bar in Massachusetts and I felt another swell of pride.
You see, I have no words to describe how wonderful a young man Kevin is. He is one of the most unique individuals I have ever encountered. Caring, thoughtful, whip smart without being arrogant about it, determined to be the best Kevin James Malone he can be.
I don’t remember how I met Sarah McCormick Malone but I did and our childhood friendship has endured and I am blessed to have been included in her family as a member of choice and they in mine, as family of choice.
Because of logistics we will not be able to do it this year but we have spent many a Christmas together over this last decade.
In the Strum und Drang of these last days before the election, I am comforted by the presence in this world of a man like my nephew Kevin, now a member of the Bar, a lawyer for real, who will do extraordinary things in his life.
Kevin, I am so proud of you. Congratulations.
Kevin and his mother the weekend of his wedding to Michelle Melton…
Tags:Eileen McCormick, Jim Eros, John McCormick, Kevin James Malone, Mary Clare Eros, Michelle Melton, New Mexico, Santa Monica, Sarah Malone
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