I am one of a very privileged few who can attest to having known Rie all her life. When she was two, she acquired a baby sister. One day, the baby just wouldn't shut up for any reason. When mommy and I checked in on the room the little girls shared, Adrienne (she wasn't Rie until more than twenty years later) ann… Read more

I am one of a very privileged few who can attest to having known Rie all her life. When she was two, she acquired a baby sister. One day, the baby just wouldn't shut up for any reason. When mommy and I checked in on the room the little girls shared, Adrienne (she wasn't Rie until more than twenty years later) announced, "I just don't know what's wrong. I've been reading she stories, and reading she stories, and she just won't be quiet". At that early age, although she wouldn't actually be reading for another three years, she had acquired a profound respect for literature. We had a paperback photo book by David Douglas Duncan, recording the events of several weeks that he had spent in the home of Pablo Picasso. Three year old Adrienne was inseparable from this book. She carried it with her everywhere, and would frequently sit down and open it, looking at the pictures. Last evening, after I had gone upstairs to bed, that little part of my brain which keeps a running review of my life opened the page that revealed little Adie and her 'Cassa" book. I got out of bed and came down to my computer to Google David Douglas Duncan, thinking to include his date of death in a testimonial to little Adie. What to my wondering eyes should appear is...no date of death! To the best of my ability to find out those things, Duncan, who would be 92 now, is still alive! I'm thinking now, how great it would be if Rie could meet him.