Lena Dunham Instagram – It speaks to the power of someone’s life force when, at 96, their death feels like an impossibility. But Betty Halbreich has gone and done the impossible. If you know anything about Betty’s life- whether its her historic tenure as a personal shopper & doyenne of Bergdorf Goodman or the epic and complex life that preceded it (which she chronicled on hand-scrawled legal pads) you know that she did the impossible with a shrug.
Betty and I met in 2014 when @jennikonner read an article about her in the New Yorker by the legendary Judith Thurman. We tried to write her story as a tv series (although she told us that “nobody wants to watch a show about an 86 year old lady, not in this America” and, as usual, she was right.)
And so for the past ten years, having a Betty became part of being a Lena. Whether she was extolling the healing power of work and her endless appreciation of the view from her office or counseling me through transitions & heartbreaks with the kind of tough wisdom that makes your face go red (if she didn’t know the term “read you for filth,” that’s because she invented the concept) she was redefining me.
“Dusting is therapy,” she told me, with the stern prowess of someone who could identify those who dust and those who don’t.
She started every call with “what am I going to do with you, child?” and ended with “come by soon, I’m almost [insert upcoming age], you know.”
I’ll miss the escalator up to her office, the royal greetings she received on each floor, the intensity of her hugs. I’ll miss dialing her 212 number, waiting for that stern “child”, knowing she is walking toward Fifth Ave in the morning and away from it at night. But as long as there’s Bergdorf’s, Fifth Avenue, an isle of Manhattan and a “child”, Betty will be here. She’s probably passing the hot dog stand now, with a wave that says “I have places to be.”
There’s such beauty to someone dying at the age that dying is meant for, knowing that they really did it all- the good, the bad & the glamorous. Everything feels wrong, even though nothing is wrong. This is a celebration, but I cannot help noticing dust everywhere.
I love you, B. I’ll come by soon. I know you’re almost 97. | Posted on 25/Aug/2024 20:18:44
