Happy Birthday, Lioness

I called my best girlfriend in Miami today and sang, "Happy Birthday to You, Happy Birthday to You, You're Now As Old As me." We laughed because age seems to be in the forefront of our minds lately. She's actually in better physical shape than I am, but Health Care is on our mind and not just because the insane Republicans are practically rioting at those town hall meetings. My Daddy used to say when you get 50, everything you got falls down, out or off. That's the truth and Lydia and I are feeling the effects of travelling the world for so long with things dropping down out or off all along the way. She lives in Fla now, but I met her in Los Angeles when she was the editor of a magazine called "Celebrity Focus" and she hired me as its music editor. We got along instantly because she is a colorful character, like me. Lydia speaks perfect English with a Spanish accent. She was born in Puerto Rico, but she's not Puerto Rican. One of her husbands was Cuban, but she's not Cuban. Her father had a business in Venezuela but she's not Venezuelan either. The unsimple truth is Lydia had one Italian parent and one Jewish parent. She's smart as a whip, has a long history of working in tv and print and I'm thinking of moving to Miami to work on a book with her. Subject of the book? Well, since she was the producer of hundreds of segments on Michael Jackson for ABC and has written a trunkload of articles about him and I know what I know, perhaps him. Or, perhaps a book on women writers in a man's world. Or maybe something about single mothers in the 60s or maybe even "How to thrive and survive after everything you've got has fallen down out or off." We usually talk two or three times a day and when I last spoke to her, her cousin Annie was taking her to dinner. To tell you what kind of person Lydia is, while Annie's parents were both dying at the same time, L drove miles every day to sit with, deliver, take care or just offer comfort. She's generous, kind and caring and I'm glad the old girl is the best friend of Ruth Adkins Robinson.