Anyway..........

L.... is in fact only half Jewish but the strange thing is that his father, foreign and Jewish, was bouncy and happy, totally positive at all times and without a care in the world. While his mother, English and not Jewish, was filled with a strange lingering melancholy and spent much time alone, brooding and reading books about the H0loc@ust. His father arrived in England after the War penniless after some horrific form of escape from persecution. He stepped off the boat at Dover and went to a cafe where he was forced to share a table with a shy young girl sitting alone. He struck up a conversation in his forward, foreign, twinkly way and by the time they had finished their tea they were madly in love. Her snobbish, middle-class family were furious and said that they would disown her unless she gave him up. So within a few months they were married and lived happily ever after. The family DID disown her and she hardly saw them again for the rest of her life but she didn't care because she adored her husband so much. And by some major effort of work and forward thinking he quite soon became a millionaire by buying up cheap warehouses and investing in the import/export market.

L... had a childhood of ridiculous privilege and luxury. At one point while on a train journey along the Mediterranean coast his father was struck by the attractive skyline of Monte Carlo. He bustled the family off at the next station and swiftly bought a large waterfront appartment - just to have - before resuming their trip. Everything would have been wonderful except for some rather large flaws. One was his older brother, who was a complete bastard. He was odd and nasty and I think probably does have borderline Asperger's Syndrome in its unpleasant form. He made L...'s life miserable in a thousand tiny ways and obviously exacerbated the other flaw which was the crippling lack of self esteem thing. As he got older being so rich also wasn't always good.
It was wearing and embarrassing to have so much more money than everyone else he knew. In those days England wasn't the best place to be nouveau riche. I found that a friend's brother had been to the same university. 'Did you know L....? What did you think of him?'. 'Oh... that playboy ... I never spoke to him. Well obviously we had nothing in common'. If only he had known. L... had the clothes and the car but he did not have the personality. He spent most of his university years reading in his room or driving his amazing car around by himself. Even the girl that he longed for wouldn't have him. She told people that he was too flashy and probably insincere. Ahhhh - L..., the most straightforward and old fashionedly romantic man I know.

This all reinforced his feeling that he couldn't cope with strangers and that everyone basically thought that he was crap. As he didn't need to work he never did. 'An OFFICE', he said ' How could I work in an OFFICE. There are other people there - all the time'. And he wasn't joking. He sold his beautiful house when he married again and just keeps a tiny basement flat in London. He lives a modest, almost spartan life now. He goes everywhere by bicycle and when alone here lives off vegetables from the market and the occasional half-bottle of wine. Spends a lot of time brooding and reading books about the H0loc@ust.

He is occasionally roused by some bizarre onslaught on his peaceful life by his older brother although I think after the last one they are no longer speaking. Their father died very suddenly and unexpectedly after a minor operation. He was buried in a charming cemetary outside London in a tiny garden-like plot surrounded by railings. Their mother was distraught and retired to the appartment in Monte Carlo where she lived alone for the rest of her days. Visited regularly and dutifully by L... and just about never by the selfish older brother. While visiting L... in London years later she became ill and died after few weeks, having been totally looked after by him as the brother was abroad. He arranged a quiet cremation, with her few remaining friends following him out to his father's grave where she could at last be reunited with the love of her life. They were grouped in the little garden, with the priest about to oversee the scattering of the ashes, when there was a wild hooting sound. A taxi screeched to a halt in the middle of the cemetary and L..'s brother leapt out. 'Stop, stop... L... , quickly, come here'. He rushed forward and snatched the urn from L..'s hands. 'I must take this immediately', lowered his voice to a mutter, 'Do you have NO idea? Mother is still registered as a citizen of Monte Carlo. If her body is buried in England all her money will be taken in taxes. We have to consider this whole matter at a later date'. With that he ran back to the taxi, still carrying the ashes, and zoomed away. The mourners were left staring, in a state of shock. When L... consulted a lawyer he was told that everything his brother had said was total nonsense. In spite of shouting phone calls and furious letters L...'s mother's ashes are still in his brother's posession three years later. Resting God knows where.
- posted by Iris @ 3/14/2004 04:22:00 PM comment