Well all have a life span. Some long, some short, some happy and some tragic. We are now grieving an Ohio family who has lost five members of their family in two separate accidents over the Christmas holidays. Tragic.
But the bright moment in the passing of a loved one comes between the announcement of death and the memorial service and that is reliving the years that you had together. All of the joyful memories come flashing by.
Josephine Charles was my mother, Delores Williams Howard’s roommate at Bluefield State Teachers College in Bluefield, West Virginia in 1949-50. Josephine married Otto Charles and they moved to Clifton Apartments in Columbus, where they raised Nickie and Cedric Charles.
The Howard Family was caught in the flood of January, 1959, spending the first night in Fire Station Number Ten at Glenwood and West Broad and the second night at the Marine Reserve Center on Sandusky Boulevard. The Charles Family then took us in and we spent the next three days with them before finally returning back to “The Bottoms,” as the Lower Westside was then called.
Nickie Charles was Otto and Josephine’s oldest son and Cedric, the younger, was born developmentally disabled. Nickie was a superb drummer, playing in the Billy Cobham school of fusion drummers. Unfortunately, Nickie acquired a drug habit, shot and killed a taxi driver and he has been in Madison County prisons for nearly thirty years. Tragic.
Josephine has spent the years petitioning parole board, attempting to get Nickie’s freedom, but to no avail. Otto passed away three years ago and Nickie was unable to attend his fathers funeral. It’s not likely that he will attend this one.
Josephine and Otto enjoyed the Frazier Community’s Annual Pig Roast and Family Day, held each Labor Day since 1984. They would bring Cedric and the extended family and we would celebrate each year. I will miss Josephine, but like all of the family, she will still be there in spirit.
When you speak of Fred Holdridge, you talk about Howard Burns. Fred and Howard were the proprietors of Hausfrau Haven, the German Village general store. I started going to Hausfrau in 1974, when Doug Dailey, a dear friend, moved to Columbus Street and we would go there on Sunday mornings for the New York Times.
German Village celebrates gay life and Fred and Howard were the most senior and celebrated of all of the Village’s residents. The Village grew from a place where you could buy almost any place for $10,000 to $20,000, into a neighborhood where million dollar homes, beautiful gardens and a house tour takes place each summer in late June.
German Village had a very light side to it, as illustrated by Void Villities. It was a show to lampoon Upper Arlington’s Vaud Villities and the characters in the show had to have a display of their untalented side. So in 1994, in honor of Fred and Howard, I dressed as Billie Holiday and performed two songs in drag. Afterwards, still dressed, the crowd went to Lindy’s Restaurant, the nicest place in town and had dinner. Howard said that I was elegant.
Fred and Howard never got any Father’s Day cards, so Aaron Leventhal and I started sending them cards in 1990 from New Orleans. I would occassionally send them a riske photo of me and my girlfriend from Jamaica and Fred would carry it around in his wallet. We had a fiftieth anniversary breakfast for them for Father’s Day, 2001 and Fred pulled the photo of me and Susan out of his wallet.
Memories will keep flooding for the days until Fred is buried, for he has reached the end of his lifespan, like Howard did in November, 2001. However, love never ends.
Josephine and Fred, I love you. Rest easy.
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