#95 Style

Eric had style. Sometimes it was good, sometimes bad, but everything he did, he did with style.

I can remember when he was in college and we were gathered in New York at my grandmother’s apartment for some family occasion and he couldn’t wait to show my husband (then boyfriend) and me his “casual suit”. This turned out to be a plain black wool suit. He was really excited about it. We asked him what it was for and he told us he planned on wearing it out to the bars. Yes, Eric, that’s just what all the college kids are doing….

I can’t remember if it was the same visit to NY or a different family gathering when Eric arrived needing his clothes dry cleaned. He took them to the cleaners and none of us really thought anything else about it...until it came time to get dressed in those clothes. He was having an awfully hard time getting his pants on. It was like the fabric was glued together. Slowly it dawned on us and we asked him if he had had his pants starched. His nonchalant look said “Of course, doesn’t everybody?” Well, no Eric, the pants usually don’t get starched and now you know why.

On the other hand, when my husband and I went to Paris he bought us tickets to the opera, insisting it was something we had to do while there. So we packed our nice clothes and enjoyed a wonderful night out that we would not have otherwise had.

When my oldest son was born, Eric felt compelled to get him the perfect gift. Somewhere in storage is a case of wine, the grapes picked the year of my son’s birth. For my second son he was still working on the gift, I know he had considered commissioning a painting of Kinnick Stadium at the University of Iowa, the source of my son’s middle name, but had discarded that. He never did come up with the “perfect” idea.

We all enjoyed Eric’s style, the faux-pas and the perfect moments. It makes us miss him all the more.