Kem and I had our first date in January of 1973. In June of that year he dumped me. He explained that he was not in love and he was going to move to New York and live the bohemian life of a singer/actor and there was no room for me in those plans. I was 19, deeply in love, as only 19 year old girl can be, and devastated by the loss. I intended to stay locked in my room for the rest of my life....but wouldnt you know, two days after the dumping, my mother was diagnosed with a terminal illness and given 6 months to live. So, hurt or not I had to reengage with life, going to school, working and caring for my mother or spending time with her at the hospital during her frequent stays. Kem remained in Chicago for the following year and I would run into him occasionally. On January 4th 1974, Kem called me and asked me to meet him for lunch the next day. He was leaving for New York soon and he wanted to say goodbye. I was working for Amtrak on Michigan Ave. and could not meet until 4:00pm, so we arranged to meet at the Exchequer Pub on Wabash for a drink (he had a cocktail I had a coke). It was my 20th birthday. When I arrived I had a small overnight bag with me and Kem asked about it. I explained that I had a date that night with my old high school boyfriend and he was picking me up at the hospital where my mother was again confined. My mother had asked me to come to the hospital and get ready for my date, It is the last time I will get to watch you get ready, honey. You know that dont you? she had said to me the night before. I explained this to Kem as we walked back out to Michigan Ave and he hailed a taxi for me. By this time it was getting dark out, the streetlights were on and snow was beginning to fall. Kem gave me a brotherly hug and loaded me into the cab. I remember looking back through the rear window at him walking up Michigan Ave toward the IC train station, he was in his grey jacket with a newsboy cap on his head, walking his Kem walk of long strides set against the beautiful backdrop of Chicago in the winter with fresh snow falling against the headlights and streetlights. I assumed I would never see him again. That moment is burned into my memory. When I got to the hospital the nurses were aware that my mom and I were having a moment they arranged a place for me to shower and plug in my hot rollers. I sat on my mothers hospital bed, rollers in my hair, applying my make-up with my mom watching closely...I always wore more make-up than my mother or sister ever did, so my mother was fascinated by the process of eye shadow and lash curler and false eyelashes, etc (I also thought i was going to be an actor in those days, I tended toward the dramatic)...and even in her weakened state (she was down to 95 lbs) she was laughing and kidding with me and the nurses (who also kept stopping by to see my progress). Then out of the blue, my mother asked about Kem. I had not mentioned that I had seen him earlier...she did not especially like Kem. She did not want me to be involved with an actor. She was quite happy we had broken up the previous summer. So her inquiry was a shock. And I burst into tears....sobbing and hiccuping the story that I had seen him just that day, that he was moving to NYC in the next few weeks and that I would never see him again. My makeup was ruined. And here I was sitting next to her crying about this boy...feeling stupid and trivial in the presence of someone who, we both knew, had only weeks to live. And Rita Clara Naddy Householder, reached up and touched my face and said, Dont be silly, honey. You have not heard the last of Kem Hauge. He will not last a year without you in New York. Who could resist you? Just dont do anything silly this year. Dont marry (fill in the name of my high school boyfriend), just because you are sad. And mom and I sat staring at each other for a few minutes until she patted me and reminded me of my date with the boy I had just been told not to marry...fix your makeup she said....and I did. Mom died 20 days later. I did not hear from Kem Hauge again until October 30, 1974. But then the phone rang and there he was... asking me to come visit him in NYC. I got on a train the next afternoon and we were married 7 weeks later. I tell you all of this because when they make a movie about this Art Garfunkles Travelling Boy will be playing as Kem and I say goodbye on Michigan Ave. Art Garfunkle and Lori Lieberman sing the soundtrack of our love story.
Posted on: Sun, 05 Oct 2014 18:53:27 +0000