The Entire World is mourning the death of Queen Elizabeth II of England,the longest reigning monarch in the world, she became queen at 25, reigned for 70 years, and passed away yesterday at the age of 96. Beloved by her subjects, respected and admired throughout the world, she worked as Sovereign until her very last day when she met with the new Prime Minister at her summer home in Balmoral, Scotland.
I admired her for my entire life for her strength, courage,dignity, her hard work, she embodied all the qualities I admire in a woman, and was an icon as queen. She managed to maintain her family life, marriage, and was true to her people, while ruling the country, and had a poignant humanity to her. She was without question not only a remarkable and wonderful queen, but an extraordinary woman of immeasurable accomplishments.

During the darkest hours of the pandemic,while I was in France for 15 months, far from my children, isolated and confined, the Queen’s Christmas and Easter messages gave me comfort and strength.She directed them to her British subjects, “to others all around the world, to people of Faith, and people of no faith”. I loved the inclusiveness of her message, the kindness, compassion and humanity of what she said. Her message of comfort and reassurance went straight to my heart.

Immediately after her death was announced by the Palace, a massive double rainbow appeared over London, and over Windsor Castle. The two double rainbows lit up the sky and nothing like it had ever been seen before. I can only imagine that God was welcoming her into Heaven with a huge well deserved celebration for a life well lived and a job well done.

God bless the Queen.

Hello Everyone,

I hope you’ve had a good week, and that some good things happened to you. Maybe Valentine’s Day got you off to a good start. I hope it went well!!!

It’s hard to find a suitable subject these days, with so many serious things going on. Fashion Week, in any city, pales by comparison, or cute shoes, or even my dogs. These are serious times. As we go through our daily lives in our various cities in countries where we are safe, our ordinary lives and problems are in sharp contrast to the horrors of war that we see on the news from Ukraine, where an unthinkable battle/war is being waged, where innocent women and children, and ordinary civilians are losing their lives and their homes and their country is buried under debris from the bombs, the images we see are heartbreaking, and millions are fleeing, while being peppered with bombs. It is more than sobering to watch, and the children break my heart.

In England, France and the US, we’ve moved into a new phase with Covid, where tests are no longer required, vaccine passes are no longer necessary, and masks have been dropped—only to be warned on the news that it’s too soon, and that there is a new variant, Ba.2, which is thought to be THIRTY TIMES more contagious than Omicron, which was something like 50 times more contagious than the one before. So how are we supposed to feel relaxed with that lurking? I am keeping my mask on any time I go out, and am feeling squeamish about very public places, and won’t go to indoor restaurants. In France there are still 100,000 cases a day, and in Germany 300,000. That doesn’t sound like it’s over to me.

War and Pestilence, it still sounds biblical to me.

But even with that going on, I took a card my daughter sent me to be framed, I had publishing and legal and insurance meetings today, seeing my accountant tomorrow, when I’m not writing, I have to do all the grown up very boring stuff that keeps life on track and sure isn’t fun. I dropped by to see a friend today, and bought cute plates for our Easter brunch.

Life is a strange mixed bag of ordinary tasks sometimes, with HUGE issues to ponder in the world, like Covid and Ukraine. While I sit quietly at my desk tonight, writing to you, someone is crawling out of the debris of a bombed burned out building, a child is crying, people are hungry and thirsty and freezing cold….the harsh realities of life woven in with the ordinary tasks, and then a brief, fleeting happy tender moment, of friendship, of love, and hope, a smile, a hug from a child, and my dogs snoring next to me when I finally get to bed at night.

We have to seize the beauty where we see it, and catch the rays of sunlight and moonbeams when they happen….and always in the midst of tedium, and chaos, and even heartbreak, somehow we have to see a ray of hope, and hang onto that.

Be safe, and well, and happy, and careful, with all my love,    Danielle

Hello!

I am busy working on a book, see you here next week!

Love, Danielle

Busy traveling,,, I will see you next week!

Hi Everyone,

I am having a much needed break this week on a family vacation, I hope you have a great week!

love, Danielle

Hi Everyone,

I hope you had a beautiful Christmas and were able to be with your families. My family and I made a brave decision this year, very brave, to follow the guidelines and suggestions not to celebrate together this year. For us, it would have meant all 22 of us getting together, 12 of us flying in and under one roof, 8 households united, arriving from 6 cities in 3 countries. To be together this year would have been flying in the face of wisdom and disregarding all expert medical advice. So we agreed to stay where we were, in smaller units of my children, well within the rules, and in the musical chairs of Covid, I wound up entirely alone. I spent almost all of Christmas Day on Face Time, and Christmas Eve on the phone. And somehow, despite distance and missing each other, we managed to open gifts together, and spend a lot of time together. it’s not the same as being together in the same room, but it was an adequate substitute in the circumstances, and left us all feeling we had spent time with each other, and it was the right decision, even though it was very hard not to be together.

I never do anything very special on New Year’s Eve, so I’m much less sentimental about it than Christmas. Long ago, I used to give big dinner dances when I was married, with an orchestra, and I love to dance. Eventually, we spent quiet evenings at home with popcorn, watching old movies. And once divorced, I gave poker parties on New Year’s Eve that were really fun. And in recent years, I neither give parties on New Year’s Eve nor go to them. They just seem like too much trouble and are usually disappointing, the roads are dangerous, and I’m happy to stay home. Now, in the year of Covid, the whole world is dangerous, and everyone and everything is dangerous wherever you are. So I’m even happier to be at home. But what I long for now is a world where Covid is gone and long forgotten, my loved ones aren’t at risk, I don’t have to remember to wear a mask, or ask my friends what they’ve been doing lately, or panic if I was in contact with someone who came down with it, or get tested regularly. Covid has become a full time part of our daily lives now, and we have to constantly remember to be responsible. It will be wonderful when it will no longer be part of our lives, and I am fervently hoping that 2021 is the year we see it depart, just as 2020 was the year we saw it arrive, and had no idea what was in store for us on New Year’s Day last year, and what lay ahead for us all, with lock downs and curfews, and tragedies over lost loved ones.

So my hope and my prayer for the New Year is that 2021 is the year that Covid will end, that it will disappear into the mists, we can throw our masks away, and not worry if we caught it going to the grocery store or from a friend. Here’s to the end of Covid, and welcome 2021. I hope this is going to be a very, very, very good year. And I wish you happiness, health, peace and prosperity in the coming year. May all your wishes come true in the coming year, and all of our wishes that this will be the year that the Covid 19 virus disappears.

Happy New Year!! Happy 2021!!! Have a beautiful New Year!!!

love, Danielle