Douglas gets in touch...

Last Sunday during a quiet afternoon at home I decided to change my profile picture on Facebook.  I am one of "those" people - a Facebook enthusiast.  I use it for business, to stay in touch with musicians and their gigs.  It has also brought me contact with distant cousins, lost high school chums, and an entire cast of people I have welcomed back into my consciousness.  Like it or not, Facebook can be very powerful, and I like it. 

So I was casting about for a different kind of profile picture when I remembered a lovely color pencil drawing by an old aquaintance.  I found it stashed away, scanned and uploaded it.  It is a still life, seen above, of exceptional delicacy and skill.  It was drawn by Douglas Robinson.  Douglas worked in television as an actor and writer, appearing on "All In The Family", (in this clip from "Border Patrol" he is the cowboy in the white hat and blue coat) and "The Mary Tyler Moore Show".  In the mid 1980s Douglas had a recurring role in 13 episodes of "Alice", playing "Doug", a loveable, witty and acerbic lush.  It must be said, and Doug has always been the first to admit it, that by the time I met him at a certain bistro up the street he was playing that character in real life.  And he played it to perfection.  He was one of the funniest and most charming individuals I ever had the pleasure to meet.  By the early 1990s Doug had achieved legendary status as a local character in West Hollywood.  That, my friends, is no easy feat.

My favorite exchanges with Doug usually went something like this:

Me:  Have a nice day, Douglas.
Douglas:  Oh, no thanks, I've made other plans.

He once said about an elderly actress:  "She has lovely skin.  It drapes so well."

So I uploaded one of the lovely drawings Doug occasionally gave to friends, and wondered how he was doing.  I hadn't seen him for quite some time.

Later that evening my friend Betty and I took an early supper at the above mentioned bistro.  It has been a favorite hang of mine for many years.  Betty never met Doug, so in the course of our conversation I showed her Doug's drawing on my phone, and began telling her about my friend, about how he would hold court at the very place where we were eating.  We talked about him at length, then after our appetizers came, Betty looked over my shoulder and said, "Oh, look at those beautiful hydrangeas."  I turned around and there, sitting at the end of the bar where Doug usually sat, was a vivid pink spray of hydrangeas.  Taped to the front of the bar below the flowers was a handwritten note:  "In Loving Memory, Douglas Robinson".  He had passed away just two days before.

Why, having no idea that Douglas had even been ill, let alone died, had I chosen that day to upload his beautiful drawing onto my Facebook page?  And why had Betty and I chosen that particular cafe for dinner?  Who knows...I'm a skeptic about such things, usually.  And yet, this was a profound series of coincidences.  So, rest in peace Douglas.  Thanks for getting in touch.