Herman was the first of our class to die. Trouble was, he was only 20 years old when he died in Washington's Cascade mountains, 2 years after we graduated. So this year, after a 30 year class reunion, gold tulip bulbs are being planted across the country in his memory. They are sitting in my mailbox, and according to the instructions and the weather predictions, I only have 2 more days to plant them before the ground will start to freeze.
At the same time, I am researching some details of one of my favourite hotels; Ottawa's Chateau Laurier, and remembering that the lobby is filled with Karsh photos. A classmate of mine who couldn't make it had told me years ago that he had seen a photo taken of Herman's grandpa, and tonight, in my research, I discovered that Karsh lived at the Chateau with his wife in a suite that still bears his name, and still contains the refridgerator from their 1930 extended stay. The photo is called Prairie Wheat Farmer, and was taken in 1953 as part of a magazine assignment.
For an exhaustive list of contemporaries, and beautiful black and white poitraits, the curated site of Yousuf Karsh is easy to navigate, and stunning.
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