Her name was Betty Joan Perske. I thought, because of
the antiSemitism of the day this Jewish woman changed her name to Lauren
Bacall but no. While her first name Lauren may seem a bit anglicized
Bacall was not. It was her mother's maiden name dropping the name of
her father who left her mother and her at a very young age.
We
lost two greats this week, one before his time (whatever that time was)
and one of natural causes at 89. Lauren Bacall is a testament to
perseverance losing the love of her life to cancer at a very young age.
She persevered and married again even having another child.
Bacall
worked well into her senior years significantly through an actress's
looskist fear when the beauty of youth fades and the mirror of career
death stares one in their face. Bacall, though, kept on going.
Williams and Bacall are testaments to two different reactions to the vicissitudes
of life. We can give up when treatment does not work and end our
suffering or we can persevere through it taking one more breath each day
grateful that we won the lottery of life by simply being born.
Both
were giants of American culture and I will miss them as I miss all who
contribute and advance so much good in a world filled with so much
observable anger, discord, violence and hate. They are a welcome calm,
if just for a moment, through the storm of life.
