SOMEWHERE IN TIME

October 11th, 2004
Christopher Reeve has died. Very sad news, my heart is broken, he was a hero to me. Every time I feel like I'm just working my behind off for nothing, or that life is just so much bullshit I try to think of Chris and how he fought so hard just to walk again.

I'm going to the "Somewhere in Time" weekend at the Grand Hotel on Mackinac Island October from October, 29th through the 31st and I was actually hoping to meet him. Some members of the cast show up each year to this event. He has attended and so has Jane Seymour. I was really looking forward to telling him what an inspiration he is. Now when they show the movie, "Somewhere in Time" the ending will be even more bittersweet. We’re leaving next Friday morning and have a six hour layover at the Detroit airport. We will be lucky to catch the last ferry of the day to the island. I'm sure it will be very touching being so soon after his death. They show the movie on Thursday and Friday nights. It's the first time most people ever get to see it on the big screen since the movie didn't get promoted because of an actors strike and bombed at the box office back when it was released in 1980. Chris Reeve himself said, "It bombed so badly it left a crater on 42nd St."

I've got to go home tonight and get out my tux and white dinner jacket and see if they still fit, then find all the darned stuff that goes with them. Do you wear the same things with the white dinner jacket as you do with the tux? I've never worn it before. They'll still be talking about me next year as the idiot that bawled like a baby at the end of the movie.
The Grand Hotel
When we got there on Friday only some of the guest were in period costume and only a few on Saturday during the day. I thought it looked kind of silly at first, but on Saturday night, oh my God! At least ninety five percent of the people were in 1912 period outfits. Men were wearing white tie and tails, and top hats, some were in military uniforms from the era. Women were in grand dresses and huge hats. It was like an out of body experience actually being back in 1912. The next morning almost everyone was back in casual clothes and it was a bit of a let down. Some of the people actually had to ship their three hundred dollar hats back ahead of them. I wish I'd gotten photos of them, but our cameras were back in the room and they had a costume promenade in the lobby and it went right down the hall where our room was on the first floor. I couldn't get back to the room without going all the way down the front porch, the longest in the world according to the “Guinness Book of World Records” and it was too cold and windy. I didn't break down at the end of the movie on Friday night like I was afraid I would. I took Ron with me and he got quite drunk. I was so mad at him trying to keep him quiet, upright, and awake, that I didn't get too upset at the end. They had a memorial for Chris on Saturday afternoon at 4:00PM, but we took a carriage tour of the island instead, I couldn't have taken the memorial service.

We met a great lady at the hotel she flew in from Detroit with us. I couldn't stop looking at her. She had that Jackie Kennedy, Gloria Vanderbilt, Brook Astor look about her. Her name was Kay and she's Carleton Varney's "Carpet Lady". He’s the world renounced decorator who completely re decorated the Grand Hotel. She was there to measure some of the rooms Carleton was going to redo this season for the hotel. She had dinner with us on Friday and Saturday nights and went on the carriage tour with us as well. She was from Newark, New Jersey. Very classy, very elegant, and looked like east coast old money. She was a joy to be around.
I got a DVD of "Somewhere in Time" autographed by Jane Seymour. They only had twenty of them and they went to the highest bidders. I saw where someone had bid one hundred and twenty dollars, so I didn't think I had a chance because I bid forty dollars, but when I went back to the room Saturday night, there it was in a gift bag on the table and the next day it wasn't charged to my room? Kay had introduced us to the Hotel manager, so maybe she arranged it I don't know. There was talk of Jane Seymour attending next year as it is the twenty fifth anniversary of the films release.
Ron came over last night to pick up his photos, he and I both had cameras. I had them developed and he paid for half. We sat down and watched the movie so we could see scenes and places, while they were still fresh in our minds. He said it was only the second time he'd seen the movie. I had to remind him he saw it at the hotel and on the first night we met. The only thing I regret was not going on a group tour showing some key locations where scenes were filmed. Ron had a hangover and wanted to sleep in. They put up a plaque at the spot where Elise asks Richard, "Is it you?" and we looked for it, but couldn't find it. Although we found out later we were probably within twenty feet of it. I noticed forked trees that looked exactly like the movie, but a front was blowing in and it was getting windy and cold, so we went in for lunch.

I asked Ron if I won a trip from the dealership next year would he like to go again. He said no, he never goes to the same place twice, there are just too many places to see. Pretty picky for someone who just got a wonderful trip for free. I told him maybe next year he could stay sober and it would be like seeing it for the first time, he was not amused.

March 7th, 2006
This morning after checking my Lotto tickets as I do every morning realizing I'll probably have to work the rest of my life. I was making breakfast and making a salad to take for lunch. I was reminding myself as I try to do often of all the things I have to be thankful for like the fact that I'm not in a wheelchair like Christopher Reeve. I heard the news on television that Dana Reeve died of lung cancer. How unfair is that? A lady full of dignity and grace, who cared for Chris for ten years after his accident dies and now their young son is without a father and a mother. Tears are streaming down my face as I write this and it really tests my faith. I can only hope and pray that she and Chris are united again in Heaven, the way Richard and Elise were reunited in the movie “Somewhere in Time.”
God bless you Dana, may you and Chris share peace and happiness together "Somewhere in Time".