On Beauty, by Becca Deysach
My oldest friend, Becca Deysach, knows more embarassing things about me than I care to acknowledge. If my memory were more potent, I might be able to drag up more dirt on her, but it’s really more fun letting the balance tip this way.
The memories that I do have of being small and in her house are mixes of cooking smells and the musty porch with the old, worn elk head on the wall, a colorful fabric ceiling in the livingroom, zipping across the backyard on the cable-and-pulley, Christmas parties with Michael Jackson’s Thriller LP on the record player. Later on, in the next chapter of memories, I am sitting on the couch with Becca and other childhood friends remembering Becca’s dad Larry after his funeral. They are snippets mostly, all of them wonderful, happy memories.
I don’t keep up very regularly with Becca, but our moms are good friends, and we hear about each others’ exploits through our communication with our own mothers. Through that grapevine, I just read this wonderful article that Becca wrote. In it, she introduces me to another side of her family that I have always known was there, but I had never seen it so well articulated. Beautiful.











April 10th, 2005 at 7:22 pm
Dear David,
How touching that the superman cape is a favorite childhood memory of yours. Actually, I bet I made one for one of you, probably Matt, as a birthday gift. I made A LOT of them. You did a mighty fine sewing job on your adorable softie. You are your mother’s son. I am going to ask her to dig out the quilt you referred to; I want to see it again. I have always been in awe of her quilts.
Becca had a great time with you guys on Thursday.
Love,
MJ