Oil 30″ x 24″ *

From a Lake George vacation photo in 1947, when my mother was pregnant with me and her best friend, Bess, sat across from her in a rowboat.

Bess was a lover of the cha cha cha, in particular after a few manhattans, when she’d shuffle her sandals across the back porch floor, laughing her distinctive caw caw caw. During the holidays, she was known for putting the Brown n’ Serv rolls in the oven with the cellophane wrapper intact. Those manhattans, that Bess!