We call ourselves The Girls Group. Don’t ask me why…it just sort of happened. Our little group began one holiday season when Helen decided that she needed to have a party while her house was already decorated for the Christmas tour. We were all members of the Historic Preservation League, so we were invited. We had a great time. And decided we should do it again in a month. Or something like that…nobody really remembers for sure. That was about 20 or so years ago. Another thing nobody remembers for sure. But, what we all do remember is how much fun we have had through those many years.
Carla has always been our style guru as well as our home décor advisor. Nobody ever saw her less than perfectly made up, fashionably dressed and bedecked with fabulous jewelry.
At some point in time, our Christmas dinner became a Carla thing, in her beautiful home on Normandy. We loved going there, it was always so pretty and so festive. Just like Carla herself.
What did we do for fun? Well, a little bit of everything, but our focus for many, many years was the Historic Preservation League, now called Preservation Dallas. We did fund raisers; glamorous events at the Art Museum, at the Gas Building and other interesting venues. Putting on one of those events took team work, dedication and lots and lots of time. Carla led the pack in our effort to make those events memorable. More often than not, she was in charge of decorating the tables, because we knew perfectly well they’d be standout if she did it.
Then we got the Farmhouse. And with it, the Mystery Dinners for special guests. We entertained Stanley Marcus, not to mention many other notable Dallasites. It was so much fun!!! We loved our house and we all worked very hard to make those dinners perfect. Just like Carla wanted (expected) them to be. Most of the time we pulled it off beautifully. Still, one or two times we had to drop back and punt, but nobody ever knew. The disasters stayed hidden behind the kitchen door. Mostly.
Carla loved that farmhouse so much that when Joe asked her one year if she would like a nice new car for Christmas she said no, she’d really rather have a nice new roof for the farmhouse. She got it.
We all know that Carla is an artist. No question about that. Who else would be creative enough to put a little doll chair on every stair step in the Richardson house? And on a bathroom wall as well.
In March we had a fabulous dinner party at Carla’s. It was a gathering of The Girls Group, a very special occasion, Helen had flown in from Seattle to be there. As you can well imagine, putting all of us together at one table, the conversations are non-stop, half of us talking all at once and, um, well, a teeny bit loud. Over dessert Carla announced that she was going back east to visit her college, Mary Baldwin, for a special event. Helen only heard the Mary Baldwin part.
“What!” she exclaimed, “Marry Baldwin??? Who is Baldwin??? I never heard you mention him before!!”
Well, we all lost it. We’ve hung out for years, and we’ve had a lot of laughs, but I don’t think we ever laughed like that before. It was totally hilarious! Carla nearly fell out of her chair she laughed so hard.
But up until the Second Sunday Supper Club dinner in April, I never knew that Carla painted. It was her turn to host the club. While we were all at the table that evening, she casually mentioned that she had painted the picture hanging on the wall. I spent the entire night staring at that picture. It was a lovely piece. Perhaps I shouldn’t have been so surprised. After all, her whole life has been devoted to art in one form or another, hasn’t it?
The whole evening was well done, in a beautiful setting, inside and out, delicious food, wonderful conversations, lots of laughter, a celebration of a marriage announcement, presided over by our gracious hostess, making sure that everything was perfect. Carla knew she was not well, but never a word did she say. It was a party, not time to talk about illness.
How like Carla to be throwing back to back parties in the last two months of her life! Who else do you know that could pull that off?
We’ve all heard the “I’m going to Marry Baldwin” tale several times since then, and I’m quite sure it’s not the last time. I think it’s destined to be one of the prize memories of our Girls Group. We’ve shared a lot over the years, happy times and sad times and sometimes even heart-wrenching painful times. Our lives are sewn together like a beautiful patchwork quilt. We stick together, through storms and sunshine, and I think each one of us truly believes that among our many blessings, one we are most grateful for is our treasured friendships in The Girls Group. Carla will always be a part of that.
