Off the Richter scale
Mimi and I became very close and we decided to move in together but we left the city and moved to Westwood New Jersey which was about a 30-45 minute drive into Manhattan. We had a beautiful apartment relatively near my office in Mahwah, New Jersey. Mimi got a job at the Corporate Service Headquarters of IBM in Upper Saddle River which was an incredible facility with swans in a lake and m it R M d w w e w t p t m t o is
The Shadow Art, New York City Photo by Barry Epstein
more. She was working for one of the Vice Presidents and loved it there. It was now time to meet the parents. Mimi’ s Mom, Roslyn, and caucasian step-dad, Frank Davis, were living near Miami and they flew up to New York and stayed with us for a few days. We hit it off quite well and had a great time together. They were fun to be around. Roslyn was a very sophisticated lady who wore expensive jewelry and clothes but she was down to earth and laughed quite a bit. Frank was very conservative and was a senior level executive for the airlines. Previously, he was the Vice President Operations for Pan Am and reported to the president who was an ex-astronaut( Frank Borman). Frank Davis told me that he was responsible for the pilots, airplanes and maintenance and had about a $ 300 million operating budget for this purpose. After many years of successfully running the operations, he decided to leave because of maintenance policy issues that were unbelievable. Frank said that the company was required to cut costs and now preferred to pay the FAA fines for maintenance problems rather than repair the aircraft. Clearly this was a huge safety issue and he resigned. But he was consulting at a senior level for other airlines around the world. Frank became my mentor and friend as I informed him of my progress at J & J. Mimi and I were very close to Roslyn and Frank over the years.
Bridge, New York City Photo by Barry Epstein
Frank and Roslyn Davis Photo by Barry Epstein
We saw them quite a bit as we lived in New Jersey. We would go to New York City frequently and dine in some great places an attend concerts such as the Fusion Jazz vocalist, Michael Franks who appeared in Carnegie Hall. Just prior to one of their visits, I decided to buy a diamond ring and I proposed to Mimi. I announced this to my sisters and friends and everyone was extremely happy. Mimi was clearly the love of my life and we enjoyed each other so much even though we were a bit opposite as she really didn’ t like the pot smoking or my friends that were smoking or doing cocaine, which was the norm at the time.
Some of my friends in New York City were artists and we would be invited to some galleries for a party. One time we went to this very big gallery in SoHo and went in to see quite a bit of drugs. In Singapore, even the mere mention of drugs was enough to hang people! So Mimi had a perspective different than mine although she excepted that I
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