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Looking east towards the IAC Building from Pier 60 in Chelsea Piers. 11:00 PM. Photo: JH. |
June 23, 2009. It looked like rain all day yesterday in New York. But it didn’t. First day in twenty-two that we didn’t have some rainfall.
Connections. Peter Evans' Guest Diary on Ava Gardner evoked a lot of comment from readers, and they are still coming in. Yesterday I got an especially interesting portrait of the star from Donna Griffes, an actress in Los Angeles who met her when Ava Gardner was being hospitalized in California. Ms. Griffes wrote:
For over a year, beginning in 1986, I was the Private Duty Night Nurse who took care of Ava Gardner. She had become sick in London, and called her doctor in Santa Monica, who told her to immediately come to St. John's Hospital, Santa Monica, California, so he could take care of her.
She arrived in the afternoon, and after her work-up, was given an injection. I came on at 11pm and we both felt comfortable with each other right away. She settled down to sleep, and upon awakening about 1 - 1:30 AM, it was apparent she had had a stroke.
When I came on duty, she often would tell me to wake her at a certain time because she wanted to watch one of her movies. It was a wonderful experience to be watching her on the TV and having the real person three feet away from me.
She entertained me with stories about Frank Sinatra and their adventures together, and also how supportive he was to her. (He used to send Mrs. Beasley's cookies to the hospital every 2 - 3 days -- we shared them). She told me how much she loved chocolate and I introduced her to Rite-Aid's Chocolate Brownie ice cream. She fell in love with the flavor. She had a suite at St. John’s and there was a kitchen. I had to bring a half-gallon every second night because we both ate it all. When she flew back home to London a year later, she took a large number of half-gallons of this flavor, packed in dry ice, on the plane.
The Night shift always passed quickly with her wonderful stories, about her childhood, her Hollywood discovery, and her marriages to Mickey Rooney, and to Artie Shaw. She talked about Howard Hughes and how strangely he 'wooed' her. She didn't like him -- said he smelled and had strange behavior. Once, she said, he sent her a present, a large box – big enough that it could have held a full length fur coat, which was what Ava was thinking when she opened it. Instead she found it was filled with stacks of cash – of every denomination, and nothing else.
She sent it back.
Then there was Frank. He was in a separate category for Ava. She told me how he kidnapped her from St. John’s one night (with her permission), using the back stairs. Once she asked me to find the phone number of Gregory Peck for her. I later learned that he was one of “Frank’s Men.” These were friends of Frank who were “contacts” for Ava with Frank. There were Frank’s men for Ava to reach him in dozens of cities all over the world.
They loved each other dearly. He paid her hospital bills and even made a car and driver available for her older sister when she came out from New York to stay with Ava at St. John’s.
People would come into her room and call her "Ava.” I asked her if she liked that and she replied she did not. (As as professional R.N. I always called my patients mister or missus.) Then, one day, she asked me to call her "Ava," and I knew we were friends.
Ava had asked me to go back to London with her but her maid interfered in this transaction, and for my safety, Ava and I both decided it was better if I let her maid take over, and I remained here in Los Angeles.
She was the nicest, sweetest, funniest, and best patient I ever had in over 20 years of private duty nursing. I should add my Nursing Registry always sent me out on VIPs; and in L.A. and Santa Monica there were lot's of them, including Nancy Walker, Glenn Ford, Joseph Cotton, Robert Alda.
She was still beautiful, despite her physical problems and vanished youth. I loved her and cared for her for over a year, and helped her to get as well as she could considering what her stroke had left her with. I still miss her after all these years; she was so wonderful and sweet - outside and inside. Someone very special.”
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