When I met Derek he was a distinguished guest at UCSJ and I was the manager of a newly opened Caribbean restaurant mostly serving UCSJ professors and guests. All the women were fawning over him, I did not understand what the attraction was as I was not familiar with his work. A group of us walked to a nearby gallery which remained open until late to accommodate the group, and Derek was oblivious to all the commotion he was causing in the group of women whose vocal admiration increased to the tone of loud cackling chickens, probably because he had long been used to this kind of attention most of his life. He was despite his age a very good looking man. I was not impressed, and Derek seemed to be just like me, we are not interested on those who pay too much attention to us, but are attracted to those who are totally uninterested....so he paid a lot of attention to me, which had the other women a little ticked off, one was a Jewish-Russian lawyer friend of mine, who was enamored with the great poet. Derek and I had great time. When he returned to Saint Lucia a few days later he called me a few times at my friends house where I was staying, which always seemed to put her in some sort of shock. He was always an affectionate, loving man. I did not respond to his candor and after awhile the calls stopped. I found out much later he had a partner in Saint Lucia, he spent most of the year away as he was teaching at Boston University then, still have the note he wrote with his phone and address in Boston. It has been few the times since the late 90s that I have thought of Derek but when I do I remember his gentleness, his eagerness to know about me, (I warned him that he better not write me into anything as a crazy Cuban woman. I will remember his loving gesture forever though, he loaned me his first edition to read, take care of it, it was my first he said. Unfortunately I did not understand the magnificence of this gesture and did not read more than a few paragraphs of his cherished book. I will remember mostly his transparent, turquoise eyes much like the waters of our beloved Caribbean Ocean, his soft honey colored skin, and a man whose libido challenged a man half his age who frolicked in bed as a youth, and a side kick who cavorted with me in the hallways of The Fairmont Hotel in San Jose. I am a shadow of what I used to be but in my youth, and a little past my mid 40s, I met and shared with many interesting men, Derek will remain one of the most interesting, loving, and caring men I have ever met. His birthday is in January, he must be in his 80s by now, but having known him, if only for a brief moment, I know his spirit remains as inquisitive and as mischievous a childs. I never shared this with anyone other than my ex Flavio....I know, this should be in part of my book, not in FB....you got to read a segment before it was edited... youtube/watch?v=7zWLloaVgPg
Posted on: Sun, 09 Mar 2014 17:28:24 +0000
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