I keep thinking I should move all my photographs from my crowded iPhone to some kind of storage device. However, I have to thank the phone’s capability to organize and remind me of the photos I have stored there. Almost every day I see another photo of Bob, as if he’s come by to say hello again and again since he died almost a year ago.
We took many pictures together, but I like the ones I took only of him – especially with his ever-present small, half closed-mouth smile while he looked at me across a table. Some of course were action shots; for example, as he perused a tall agave bloom in our garden or stood against the Manhattan Beach pier railing while watching the boogey boarders and surfers down below. He loved having his picture taken.
We went to lots of places together – in Europe, in Africa, in Israel, in California, in New York, and of course took tons of pictures. One of my favorite shots is of him and his college buddy Morty intimately chatting about all the years gone by. We always got together with Morty when we were in New York. I loved that Morty adopted me into their college family.
One of the last photos I took of him was when he sat across a small table from me at The Ivy restaurant on Robertson Boulevard in West Los Angeles. He had just had a very positive visit with one of his doctors and wanted to celebrate. Our outside table had one of The Ivy’s beautiful multicolored rose bouquets set in the middle. Bob sat with the back of his hand supporting his cheek wearing sunglasses and his favorite beige jacket that he bought while on African safari. A plate of hamburger and fries was in front of him though I don’t remember him eating a bite. He also wore his habitual closed mouth smile that made him look very happy.
Bob had a very sensitive face with a ruddy complexion and a distinguished deep line between his large, clear, and very blue eyes. He used those eyes to look deeply at me, clearly showing me the love he felt. I am glad that I still can see that love in the pictures that come up on my phone every day. It gives me a lot of comfort. So no, I’m not going to remove those photos from my phone anytime soon.
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