Sunday, February 10, 2008, 2008
We have had a low-key (entirely at home) kind of weekend but
it started out and has been infused with sadness at Bernice Tutt’s passing on
Friday night. Bernice was a good friend of Daddy’s for many years since he
moved to this area, and Mama and I have been lucky to get to know her as well. Bernice was
funny and strong, always spoke her mind, and she adored me. Bernice turned 98
last year (photo on right is the cake Baba and Mama shared with Bernice at our
home). She was so active – in mind and
in body. She continued to work out with a personal trainer several days a week,
read the New York Times from cover to cover (she cut out and sent us the
announcement of Jo Ayi in the play she was in last year), and just last year she
almost walked down a runway of models (granted, the last feat was by accident
when Mama and Bernice went to a celebration for the opening of the hair salon,
Gem, and they took a wrong turn!).
Bernice was the first one to come visit me the day I
got home from the hospital. She
arrived just a couple hours after I arrived home. Here (to the left) I am that afternoon in
Bernice’s arms (with her wearing her breast cancer awareness pin). Bernice’s
personality was lots of fun. The first
time Mama gave her a copy of this photo on the left (and thought Bernice would
love it), Bernice told Mama to take back the photo and airbrush out the
wrinkles! Among many other accomplishments in her life, Bernice was a survivor
of breast cancer. She was a philanthropic person who gave lots to a breast
cancer center in