Let Me Finish (32 page)

I was not there—maybe this is why the picture means so much now. I was off in London on assignment for
Holiday
magazine, where I worked—I hated being away for
this notable birthday—but within a few minutes the phone in our kitchen would ring with my surprise call, and Evelyn would let me know what I'd just missed. She sounded young and lit up with happiness—just the way everyone in the photograph looks now. Across our patchy little property and up the steep hill beyond, our neighbors Rita and Bob Norris have just stepped out onto their terrace—they're coming to the party, too—and they burst out laughing when the faint, globelike notes of the corny old song come floating past them, glowing like summer lanterns.

I am grateful for friends and colleagues at The New Yorker, where some of these chapters first appeared, and in particular for my editors: William Maxwell, Gardner Botsford, Charles McGrath, Ann Goldstein, William Shawn, and David Remnick.

—R.A.