Whiskey Solace

When I met him, Andrew was already in his sixties, a tall, elegantly thin man - manicured and tailored, attired rather than dressed, carrying a cane and smoking imported cigarettes from a silver holder. He was a regular at all the bars in town, haunting them from early afternoons until well into the nights. He was what I came to think of as "Jimmy Stewart" drunk - always charming and courteous with a style and flair all his own. When he became unsteady on his feet, he would find a comfortable chair and sit with a slight smile and a martini glass. His driver sat outside with the Mercedes while Andrew read his evening newspaper and drank himself into a blurry oblivion. He was never loud or agitated, never pushy or braggardly, never caused the first bit of trouble for anyone. He minded his own business and drank himself into a gentle melancholia where he found escape and peace from an unkind world.

He had made his money in real estate and oil, had attended Columbia, married well and raised children. He was well liked, educated, successful, wealthy and came from a fine family. He had been a good son, good father, good husband, good businessman - he had worked hard and achieved his goals, had acquired all the trappings of a good life - and then discovered that none of it made him happy. He retired early and began drinking out in the open, making no effort to disguise his alcoholic intake and taking no offense at those who would change him. He slipped in and out quietly, a handsome, dapper man who tipped his hat to every lady and knew every bartender's name. Thank you, my dear, he would tell the waitresses or The usual, if you please, to the bartenders and later they would find a fifty or hundred bill had been left.

He sought and almost always found the good in people, overlooking their flaws with ease and a gentle empathy, hoping for the same kindness in return. He accepted his many companions for who they were, bought drinks generously, never turned away anyone who appeared to be in need. His friends were from high society and low, he embraced them all and he died before his time of a failed liver, leaving his demons behind. In this world, Jimmy Stewart said in "Harvey", You must be oh, so clever ..... or oh, so pleasant.