Georgette

There is an elephant in the room but who sees it. I have looked at my writing over the past few weeks and have had to say.. self, why haven’t you said anything about Georgette. I feel like I have known her my life time and yet, not sure any 2 legged could really be close to her. When we talk to the doctors, she always says, this is my best friend. I have always felt her heart but like many in my family, I have not been someone she has known what to do for or about. We were introduced by a longtime scout friend of mine on our annual ski trip. We were the best skiers in the bunch and she helped me go through a major shift in how I skied which lead to my ski patrol and competitive ability. I was about to take a job in Rochester, and she was interested in doing more photography work, so we got a small apartment in Rochester and started living away from family. We did a Christmas card the first year, which was a pen and ink drawing of field flowers and I did the poem “From sunlight slanting through paper leaves..the glitter of silver crystals fall on waiting tendrils of staw” I can think of many stories to describe her and our relationship, but I think the ones that really stand out were our Christmas Card adventures. I had a project for a community group that required a silk screen poster. Georgette is a trained graphic artist, so I asked her to help. She didn’t know, but we would learn. We found a guy, Clayton Hayes, who was an alcoholic and great guy (last I heard was married to a lesbian in Florida so she could get family food allowances for her and her girl friend and he could get medical care.. but that is another story) Clay ran a shop in the building that is now the Downstairs Cabaret and he helped us learn the techniques and how to hand cut a screen. Georgette loved it and said.. lets do Christmas cards..... One thing about Georgette, once an idea floats into her head and sticks.. there is not saying.. I am in grad school, this is the end of my first term,..I have 10 papers and reports etc.. I am commuting to Syracuse twice a week.. I am in field placement ... best to stop all of that and just say.. OK Well, if we are going to do this, we should do enough for her father to send as his business card.. and and and.. so we will do a couple hundred cards. OK.. and you will do the verse... OK. To summarize the process, each color is cut onto a screen and then attached to a press, the paper is placed in the middle like a sandwich, the paint is placed on top of the screen and then dragged across the screen with a squeegee. Each of the 200 cards must have this process for each color. The most complex card we did in our 25 years of printing was an eight color card. Each color takes 2.5-3hrs to print and dry. That is where I come in. It was my job to figure how we could do this. So, I took the ironing board and put weighs on the far side and attached it to the card table she was working on. Then I took our projector screen and attached it to the wall and turned the screen parallel to the floor. Strings were attached between the ironing board and the projector screen that had knots in them. The cards were then clipped with paper clips and hung on the string. This contraption would hold about 150 cards and then the rest had to be placed on the floor, beds, kitchen table etc. Georgette would print the picture and place it on the ironing table for me to pick up and place. The trick was to keep the pace going so the paint consistency did not change or start to dry on the screen. My job was to run back and forth as quick as I could .. while trying to read my school chapters, make notes for a paper etc. If the paint dried.. and she had to clean the screen.. there was 30-40 min extra work a color. So I got up at 5 and drove to Syracuse. Went to class and left Syracuse about 6 drove home getting home about 7:30 – fixed dinner and started printing a few colors around 8 trying to finish about 1:30am for bed and starting over the next day. This year, for whatever reason, we had selected an orange color that was extremely thick and very toxic. The smell was just overwhelming. As I was running back and forth, bending over or down to place the sheets on the floor, I became ill and started to get very dizzy. Keep going, the paint will dry...OK... I am pretty tough but at one point, I was hanging my head out the back window trying to get some air. We lived through the process and managed to do 25 cards. They represent our life together. In the note on the last one, “twenty years ago, Georgette and Bonny created their first Christmas card. That was the only card that was not silk screened. For the 20th card, we have screened the same concept of the first card. During the years, we have lost several friends, both of our fathers, and out pets – Mr Cat, pouncie, Oskie the Raccoon, and silver the horse. This card is both a tribute to a long friendship and a Thank You to all of you for being our familes, friends, pets, and associates. On to the next twenty years. Well one can read the date 1984 and we have made it farther than the 20 years.
And tonight I will drive to her home at the farm and go with her tomorrow to hear what the oncologist suggests for her treatment plan for the breast cancer that has found a home in a 3.5inch tumor in her hip. And we will get through this also. Nothing we ever have done has been easy. She is not easy and talks more to her 7 horse herd and her 7 dog pack that she will to me. And I will say things that will make her angry like, you need a health care proxy and fix your will and lets clean up your house.. And I know that not much I will do will be the way it should be done according to her. I signed on as a friend 40+ years ago and I will try to be as mindful as I can that in spite of herself now more than every she will needs friend.
“Friendship like winter flowers ENDURES
soil – rich of fathers pets friends
stems – strong of values principles concerns
Blossoms forth with colors of experience love and time.