Jean and I shouldn’t have hit it off, we shouldn’t have been friends. We both liked attention, loved to talk, both had giant personalities, and both were convinced we had the biggest hands on a lady (she was correct). We met in February of 2009 and were instantly friends. I was “holding court” in a cubicle aisle at Rotary International, and as she would say, she came around the corner and in her distinct voice, said “who is this guy?”
I have been obsessed with the Bloomsbury Group for some time and at that time in my life talked about it incessantly. I think Jean was impressed that I knew something obscure and somewhat literary. We saw each other every day for the first 6 months we were friends, and on one of our first dates, we went to an exhibit of Virginia Woolf and her sister, Vanessa Bell’s communications. We found out that these two sisters had nicknames for each other, Goat and Dolfin. So, Jean became Goat, and I became Dolfin.
For the next 12 years she would put up with me calling her Goat and she became one of the 2 people allowed to call me Mandy. She only called me Dolfin to remind me that dolphins are just gay sharks.
When thinking about something to say I again, turned to Virginia Woolf. A quote from Bernard, a character from “The Waves” that reminded me of our beloved Jean:
“Some people go to priests;
others to poetry;
I to my friends.”
Thank you, Jean, for loving this gay shark, and letting me call you friend.