Love Letters To A Frank Lloyd Wright House

unforgettable experience. Unintentionally, I had become a scholar myself, sort of, and I was invited to talk at symposia and lecture at an international meeting of the Society of Architectural Historians, as well as at other venues. Prior to being owned by a Wright house, I had lectured on oriental rugs but after moving to Illinois, I expanded my subject matter. Through a Wright fundraiser, which Wright’s granddaughter the movie star Ann Baxter attended, I met her former childhood friend Carter Manny and his wife, Mary Alice. I invited the Mannys over for tea and lemon bread and for them to see another house by Wright. This was the beginning of my friendship with Mary Alice. Later, she encouraged me to continue my legal battle for justice, after I had experienced the corruption in the Chicago divorce court and was nearly ready to give up the fight. Her husband, also having been a whistleblower at that time, had become the Director of the Graham Foundation and was trying to rectify what had gone This time, love was not a coup de foudre, like an explosion, a flash of lightning. It was not being smitten, or merely youthful, physical attraction, but it was like finding the right puzzle piece that made the puzzle complete. I love to puzzle and have done so since before I could read. It often happened that just when you were my paintings, asked me to come and design his gardens in Indiana. I owed that to Mary Alice, as by then justice had triumphed in my divorce settlement and I had the time. Indiana was not Eden by any means, but along with the plants that I transplanted, love was transplanted also. It grew as we raked leaves, and gardens. Carter was my last love. There is always a first and always a last love, even though nowadays, the last is seldom the first.

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