Life, death and taxes... God is in her world (sometimes called Heaven) and all's right with our world. Well, yes and no. It's good to report new life. Dan and Suwy have Emma, Malgosio Pioro & Andrzej Kraus have twin boys (and Andrzej has an exhibition in London), and Sarah Hardie has a daughter, Fiona. Dear old friend Carlos Clarens has left life. At the tender age of 56 years young, a heart attack has cut him down.

I pause to telephone Jeffrey Kime to confirm C.C.'s age and Jeffrey reports that he and his wife Eliwabethm are expecting a child in April. Life and death, the cycle continues... On Monday 9th of March, some of C. C.'s friends gathered in the Cinematheque Francaise to give tribute to his memory. It was a loving event. Jeffrey Kime and Elizabeth were there, also Edith and Pierre Cottrell, Richard Roud, Pascale Dauman, Annabel Herbout, Isabelle Weingarten, Agnes Varda and many, many more. Excerpts from Varda's "Lion's Love" are screened, and Carlos is "alive" before us. Big as life, as he always was. Tales are related and letters read. I wander out, alone, in the cold Paris night. I ponder our last meeting, in October '86, when we talked a long time on the telephone and promised each other to meet together again in La Coupole "real soon" - just like in the old days. Alas it is not to be. I could not find his last letter to read to everyone, but today it was uncovered under a large "to answer" pile and is reproduced for all of you fortunate enough to have shared him and for those of you who did not.
His childlike sense of wonder will be missed.

Better hugs than hugs… as Ewa Krygier suggests in a letter received today. Yes! Jim