In the wink of a young girl's eye

(on the right with the cat eyeglasses and cigarette)

(as a schoolgirl with an uncharacteristically feminine bow)

(donning her classic co-ed picnic on the diag casual ensemble)

When I was growing up my parents had this older friend who never married or had children. She spent every holiday and most weekends with our family attending concerts, movies, trying new restaurants or testing the latest Bittman recipe from the NY Times.

I wouldn't describe her as motherly or even interested in children, and frankly, I don't think she cared much for children. (I later found out that she gradually lost her hearing and had a particularly difficult time hearing children's voices; something about the pitch.)

For our birthday, she always gave me and my sister books-- really wonderful books. When we were young it was irritating but now that she's gone, my biggest fears are that I will forget the sound of her voice and I won't be up on the latest and greatest books. She used to send me random packages from Amazon with books I didn't even think I'd like, but inevitably enjoyed.

She passed suddenly about six weeks ago and as my family and her friends gather for her celebration of life, many photos have emerged of her as a child and a young woman. I never thought of her as old or elderly, but I really never thought of her as a young person. She was in a realm of agelessness and I was shocked to find out her real age (79) when she died.

These are photos of her as a young adulthood and as a girl, and they are fabulous. Look at those glasses! Sassy. And that bow around her little towhead is just adorable.

It's a funny that I never thought about what she was like when she was young or how her life experiences shaped her into the adult she was.