Daily Blague

A death in the family has called us out of town for the weekend. My beloved uncle, John Miles Keefe, died the other day at 83. He was such a kind gentleman that he waited until everybody who had enjoyed Kathleen's birthday dinner at the Plaza Tuesday night had gotten home. Four of the six people at that dinner will be in New Hampshire tomorrow.

The awful thing for all of us is that until just about yesterday nobody thought that he was going to die anytime soon - or perhaps ever. Last winter at this time, we were sure that he was on his deathbed, but he joked with the nurses and ran off to the West End for a week of theatre. This year may have been different because of a serious illness in the family that required a lot of toing-and-froing along wintry New Hampshire roads.

My uncle John had, I'm as sure as one can be about such things, a very good life. Bright and handsome, he was far too engaged with and interested in the world to let his zest and vigor be sapped by the blasé detachment that was his generation's style of ultra-cool and that he could put on and take off like a glove. If he did not have the blandly easy career that was expected for him - he started out at Sullivan & Cromwell, and by "easy" I don't mean "idle" - he had a far more interesting one, and fifteen or so years ago, doggedly pursuing a wrongful-discharge case, he won for his client one of the largest judgments ever awarded in New Hampshire. While he was alive, he was too vivid for me ever to see the resemblance to characters played by some of Hollywood's great leading men. John, of course, wasn't acting.

John Keefe was an anchor of my life long before the death of my own father (his older brother) twenty years ago. He will not be replaced.

The photograph is a souvenir of his naval service in World War II. Although born on the banks of the Mississippi River, John was a lifelong sailor. And, as the picture suggests, a devoted and beloved son. I say nothing of those of us who are left behind. The loss, for the moment, is unspeakable.