So Long, Beanie

Mummy P's neighbor and good friend, Beanie Wolin, died last Friday. The funeral was yesterday in Saint Plotniko, and was apparently a beautiful one, as those things go.

Beanie's last few months were not great -- she had congestive heart failure so she was hooked to oxygen tanks day and night. At least she got to stay in her home until the end.

She was a character -- Plotnik has written before about the politics of the Friday Hair Appointment, whose unspoken rules were rigidly obeyed. She was always very nice to Plottie and family, all of whom learned that at Beanie's you took one candy, not two, when she passed around the blue ceramic dish. In her later years, her living room was the hottest place on Earth not surrounded by sand, but one look at Beanie in her chair, covered with a blanket but every hair in place, and you thought not of your temporary discomfort but of this once invincible lady now confined to her chair and her blanket and her oxygen.

Her passing leaves one fewer of the generation of home owners who moved into the neighborhood in the 1960s when Mummy P. and The Chief did, when the homes were new. These homes are often purchased now by immigrants, many from Eastern Europe, Armenia, Lebanon, Russia, as well as younger families who usually have something to do with the entertainment business, since Mummy P. lives just up the hill from Universal Studios.

Beanie and her sister Lillian, and their two husbands, and Mummy P. and The Chief once spent a lot of time together, went to movies and out to dinner, had lives that included one another. Now, Mummy P. is the only one left. What a tragedy it must be to look around and see your friends disappearing, one after the other.

Tonight is Rosh Hashana, the Jewish New Year. Perhaps it is not an accident that tonight is also the first night of the Plotnikkie celebration called De Playoffs. But whereas De Playoffs is only celebrated once every few years, New Years is forever. Plotnik is truly thankful that new friends down the street have invited Mummy P. to their home for Rosh Hashana dinner tonight. The brisket is always tastier when prepared by a new friend.