It was august 2002. My friend Lucia Pamela passed
away on july the 25th of 2002. I had to go to her funeral in Hollywood, Los
Angeles, did that, and was able to say a last Goodbye and 'see you later Pam'
to her. She used to say 'see you later' about a year ago to me through the telephone.
Which was for me a sign that the distance of The Netherlands / the USA was relative.The
service of the funeral was intimate and held in a way she really would have
liked herself. A gathering of friends and family close to her. There was music
and good memories and a tribute to her on a screen. I spoke a speech for her
-like her familymembers and her beloved nurse did also - and performed her song
"In love,in love" for her. I guided myself with a portable cassetterecorder
and a cassette on which I had recorded the pianopart of "In love,in love"
on Lucia Pamela's own piano,that evening before. I thank her two children and
grandchildren Chip and Lucia for their cares, and also Noel and Kenny for their
welcome and words. Most of all I thank Lupe and Gloria who did and who were
so much for miss Pamela,who were there for me when I stayed with them together
and with whom I spent unforgettable times.
Times change,but the party is not over.As Lucia
Pamela said: "You can't live life going backwards.You must go forwards".
Lucia Pamela won several prices forthe best
decorated bycicle, 1938, Mayday Forest Park, St.Louis
MY
UNCHANGED STORY OF 1998:
I visited miss Lucia Pamela,the
One I dedicated my record 'Darling' to, in october 1998.I first got to know
her music when I bought her CD -re-issued album- 'Into Outer Space with Lucia
Pamela' in Gent,Belgium,somewhere in february 1998. I actually saw only one
CD of her by accident,when I was looking in some cd-boxes upstairs at a big
recordshop, passing the time before 'Bedroom Politics'-a great evening with
performances and concerts-would begin in 'De Vooruit' accross the street.I bought
Lucia's CD because I liked and thrusted the cover.After hearing it,I was completely
enthousiastic about it !I hardly ever heard music as fantastic and playful as
hers.(Hear "In the year 2000" at the internetpage with more information
about Lucia Pamela mentioned below) Amazing! In may 1998 I made a record myself
and dedicated this to Lucia Pamela. I wanted (it) to be in her spirit.After
my record came out, I started to look for Lucia Pamela,because I wanted to give
Lucia Pamela my record.I didn't know if she would be alive or around on earth
at all.A serious search started. I asked people who knew her,worked with her,via
letters,postcards and email,and later by telephone.Most of them hadn't seen
Lucia Pamela for years.Finally I spoke to her grandson,who told me that Lucia
Pamela lived nearby him and that he visited her often. So I found her and I
sent her my album plus an artbook of mine with pictures. A few months later
Lucia Pamela replied my mail.I got a nice letter with pictures of her portrayed
in front of a big aquarium and her artbook,an amazing colouringbook she made
years ago,for children and for us,about her trip to the moon.In her letter she
mentioned that it would be nice if I would visit her some time,for she could
not move around that easily by herself to visit me,due to her 'young age'.(this
sentence was finished by the words:"ha!ha!") She signed her artbook
for me with :"Large Lucia Pamela 1998".
Miss Lucia Pamela ,some time ago,here presenting
her self-invented hairclips-for-earrings,brought out under the
name L-PEG,same name as her recordlabel from
Fresno / at the organ
We differ 63 years in age.When I was with her,any
difference at all,disappeared.We talked,we had fun,loved and admired each other
and we played piano together.We looked at pictures together.We did drawings.She
put numbers in a drawing.I put a lot of our meeting on film.We were soulsisters.One
morning, after her nurse had dressed her,fixed her hair,had done her lipstick,she
looked like a princess and I told her that.She looked pleased,I got a mirror
and held it up for her so she could see herself and she said loud and clear:'PERFECT!'
Then after a while,after she had noted satisfied the surprise on our faces,she
continued:"You should put it somewhere so that everybody can see it!"(The
mirror).Our talking was about different things.It was about our looks and skills,we
both found each other pretty and smart.(She wanted me to wear one of her earclips-while
she held in her ear the other one.As I played for her or showed her a drawing
she nodded with proud in her eyes.At the same time,like when we were both at
the piano,a healthy feeling of competition came over her and she straightened
her shoulders and showed me what SHE could.She expected my compliments towards
her and didn't like my interference).We talked about the wheather,the mountains,money,girls
on tv,people,the nameLucia Pamela.About the Pasadena Huntington Library.Pam
assured that 'they just put the trees all up there' and that at te end of some
paths in the large park 'there was nothing out there'. The first day I was with
her,I mentioned to her :"I wish I could play music like you". She
answered then :"You can,but you don't realise it".In this way she
surprised me more then once by saying the right thing at the right time.Encouragement-something
she brings forward as long as she lives,to all people she has been able to give
it to-was in it, and a great Knowing and love for life.
I was delighted that I could see and play on
some of her still beautiful instruments; her pianos and accordeons.
There was this little accordeon with her name written on it in a childish handwriting.The
Christmas tree was up,decorated with fake autumnleaves and bows,with the lights
on day and night,and this tree is up there all year.For Lucia Pamela loves Christmas.All
the time. Nowadays christmassongs are her favorites,as she told me. She gave
me her record,the one from her Fresno-label L-PEG. (on this L-PEGmark she also
did bring out an inventioned clip for girls,many years ago-but it's still there
: a clip you can wear in your hair and attach it the same time to your earrings,so
that you never lose your earrings.Funny fact is,that at the present time,Lucia
Pamela loses her earrings often and then her nurses must seek in the seams of
her favorite chair or the seams of the chair in the car).Lucia Pamela signed
her record for me,and the spot of the sleeve to put the sign on was not a white
empty space,but the fullest and darkest space IN her picture on the sleeve.When
we went out,Lucia loved it to get a fresh-picked flower.She held it long in
her hand,and being in the car,she put the flower on the dashboard,('so that
everybody can see it!')where it stayed,and stayed fresh long.
....................
Lucia and one of her Musical Pirates female
pals
Lucia Pamela is a source of inspiration,still,and
she has that glimpse in her eyes that says it all.The things she did in her
life and the woman she was and still is: a beautyqueen; a manager of a storyland
for children in which she acted as mother Gooze; a teacher; an entertainer for
presidents (She's got a thanksletter from president Bush); soldiers,children,men,women,family
and strangers; a daughter of Lucia Pamela Beck,who was a composer and a pianovirtuoso;
a mother of Ken Irwin,who wrote songs with her and now has a residential in
Palm Springs; a mother of Georgia Frontiere,who used to sing duets with her
as"The Pamela Sisters", who sings opera,so I was told,today-and owns the St.Louis
Rams;the one who got the first price in 1938 for the best decorated bicycle;
a lady who always took her taperecorder everywhere and taped social meetings,for
she loves social meetings; a woman who once made 12 turkeys at thanksgiving
in one time,and brought it to the church for the poor; a woman who did shows
on radio and television,a woman who,at 'old' age, one day said 'Thank you'(for
the good cares) several times to her nurse ,being answered by her nurse:"Why,you
don't have to thank me Pam,I'm just doing my job",-which she replied with:
"It's called intelligence" (saying 'thank you').
All those things and many more.I can only imagine
the iceberg under the top that I have been confronted
with -are important.Magical.Good. And it's all coming from a very large personal
universe, that is directly connected with life beyond earth.
Did you know we are all connected with that
life beyond the earth,by the way?
Lucia Pamela is a woman with a futuristic mind,an
inventor.Though hardly mentioned in the books,be sure,about many things,in an
artistic,even scientific sense,she must have been the first one who did IT.
Quite something it is,that I met her.
LUCIA PAMELA in 1998:
Danielle
Lemaire and Lucia Pamela at Universal Studios, Los Angeles
******
listening
to a musical ode to her **************Lucia Pamela
sees her own internetsite for the first time in her life
***********
*in Pasadena at the house of Kirk Biglione
more
pictures:* click
here! 
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