Elizabeth Taylor, 1932 - 2011

I started knitting class last night and I fully intended this post to be about how much fun I had. Clearly, I am going to love this knitting thing. I learned that even I can be taught how to do purl stitch, rib stitch, seed stitch and one other stitch whose name escapes me (but I can show you how to do it). I was glad that I had reminded myself how to cast on by watching YouTube all weekend, because we really did launch right into knitting.

I wanted to write a little bit about how disappointed I was to find that there were no little old ladies in my knitting class. Well, except for me. Our instructor was in her early twenties, and none of the other three students looked like they had cracked thirty, yet. They were all lovely, don't get me wrong. It's just that I had this vision of sitting around with older, grandmotherly women. Which is kind of silly, since most older women already know how to knit. I had a hot flash while we were learning about measuring "gauge" in our knitting. I didn't quite understand, and I don't think that it was just the heightened body temperature that stood in my way.

So those were some of the things that I was going to write about, but honestly, my heart just isn't into penning about knitting.

I woke up to the news that Elizabeth Taylor has passed away. First Born just called me to make sure that I had heard. As she said "I knew you would care, Mom." I think it's very sweet that she knows that about me. I know that my daughters don't know much about Elizabeth Taylor, but they know that my mother and I (and maybe my Baby Sister?) thought a lot of her. It was less than a month ago that I blogged about missing seeing Elizabeth Taylor at the Oscars.

I grew up knowing that Elizabeth and my Mom were born in the same year. I think they were both beautiful, dark-haired women with piecingly bright eyes  - Mom's blue and Elizabeth's violet. Mom used to talk about watching the young Elizabeth in her early films (National Velvet was her favourite as a young girl) and absolutely loving her. Being of the same age, she once joked, she felt they had some things in common, give or take six or seven husbands and a billion dollars. Her adoration turned to admiration when Elizabeth Taylor started fundraising for AIDS in support of one of my Mom's other favourite movie stars, Rock Hudson.

Elizabeth Taylor was one of the last remaining Hollywood Movie Stars. I guess I'm getting to that age where I will start to see the "passing of an era" on a regular basis. I suppose I'm part of an era where young women are picking up knitting needles more and more, and even teaching a few of us older ones how to use them. Guess I'm grateful that I'm here, knitting and watching eras pass. As a cancer survivor, I have no right to bitch about getting older.

Speaking of eras ending, I'm going to miss Larry King tonight, he would have done a great show talking to people who knew and loved Elizabeth Taylor. Larry is on CNN right now, being interviewed about the star's passing. Larry's with me on this one, Elizabeth was special. As he just said, "we'll never replace her."

I don't mean to be so dependent upon YouTube these days, but the late Paul Newman's tribute to Elizabeth Taylor really says a lot. Rest in Peace, Elizabeth.