Cousin Lloyd Gilden Comes to Town, a man of kindness, honor and learning

Cousin Lloyd Gilden got interested in Buddhism when he served in the Navy in the Far East. He studied the religion with a master on his off-hours. He practices it at home in Manhattan by meditating every day and reads Buddhist teachings.

He met Alan Watts, the man who introduced eastern thought - Zen and Buddhism - to America.

He was only 58 when he passed away in his sleep. I used to listen to tapes of Alan Watts and read his books. I really dug the man and his philosophy.

Like me, cousin Lloyd doesn't believe in an Afterlife, though his wife Kate does.

Life is a mystery, my dad said.

 Mom participated in our lively discussions.

 We went to Donna's condo in Hatboro to watch home movies. There were a dozen to choose from and there was no index, so we watched nothing.

We did something far better: talked. Learned about one another. Lloyd grew up in Cleveland, like we did. He attended Shaker Heights High School as I did. I was the only one of our six kids who did. We moved from there to Englewood Cliffs, NJ, and then to mom and dad's house in Huntingdon Valley 19006. 

Lloyd is a psychologist in Manhattan. His office is right next door to his apartment. He's fascinated by Conflict Resolution and follows the precepts of Eugene Gendlin - born 1926 in Vienna - whom he's met. 

Then Ellen and Lloyd went to Ben n Irv's. I requested chopped liver.

 Donna's condo will be razed in six months and she'll move in with me.

 Ben n Irv's had spectacular chocolate cake. I had a small piece plus one of mom's lemon squares. Unbelievable! Lloyd couldn't believe how delicious it was.

Mom said that the orig. recipe doesn't call for frosting, but she makes it anyway to make it all the sweeter.

She used the Meyer Lemon.

When I arrived for corn beef, chopped liver and cake, the first thing I said upon walking in the door, was
"Ticdelarue!"

"Who had it?"

Neither Ellen nor Lloyd knew that my Great-Aunt Ruthie suffered from this condition. As I was explaining it at Donna's, there was a tremendous victory in my brain as the words "trigeminal neuralgia" came screeching out, freeing up the equivalent of a Route 66 highway of memories.

You take Tegretol for it, I said. If that doesn't work, you have surgery, like Aunt Ruthie did. It paralyzes half your face but at least you're out of pain.

Ticdelarue is one of the most painful conditions known to man. I read an article ages ago in Newsweek where it said that a person can step outdoors, feel a breeze, and go into spasms.

Aunt Ruthie, who lived in Miami, divorced her gambler husband. He lived until he was 103. Are gamblers always as charming as my uncle was?


Join me in watching an interview with the great James Garner here.

First, tho, I'm gonna steal a pic from FB.