My first close friend to pass away...

You always wonder what it'll be like.

I remember when it happened to my Dad.

We were living in Hawaii where we'd moved in 1964 from Las Vegas for his business. A year or two later, his oldest friend and former business partner passed away.

I was home alone with him (my Mother was on the Mainland--as they call it there--I think) and I remember feeling rebuffed by his response to the phone call because I went to hug him and he pushed me away.

I felt hurt...and yet, at the same time, I understood completely.

My husband just now came and hugged me and I just cried. We both smiled, too, because we both had loved Marie and known her eternally upbeat take on life (although he didn't know her for as long, or in the same way as I did, since I met her long before we were married). We'd last shared a lunch with her at The Cheesecake Factory in Marina del Rey last year where we sat outside near all the yachts and ocean air.

No, I don't suddenly feel my own mortality like you so often hear people say. I've felt my own mortality for quite awhile already, thank you very much! And Marie was not afraid to die (I know, because I asked her).

She was pretty, she was fun, and she loved life.

And...I really miss her!

She really should have broken through in the music business, too. She sang...and you could feel it in your heart.

Years ago, I was at one of her live performances. One grey-haired lady just couldn't contain herself and ran up on stage and hugged her!

THIS is what Marie (Eddie Marie Jones-Kurgan) brought out in people all of her life...and it is what I will miss the most.

Eddie Marie Kurgan's heart was in Music Row

2/26/11: Eddie Marie: Karaoke Queen