The film Leaving Las Vegas is based on what was basically a suicide note written by a high school classmate of mine. I understand that he committed suicide the day that he sold the film rights to the book, but his original intent as depicted in the book was to drink himself to death in Las Vegas. LLV was the only work of his that he published before he died. Other works were published posthumously by his sister. More on this later.
Someone who used to come to dinner on Tuesdays night Left Pasadena last week. She and Jay (the subject of a couple blog posts a few years back) were a couple until Jay suddenly died of a heart attack.Uno took's Jay's death pretty hard. She'd always had a problem with alcohol, but it escalated after that. She came back for dinner a few times, but began to hang out around the restrooms down at the south end of the park pretty much all the time, drinking with anyone that would join her. The heavy drinking finally took its toll and Uno died recently. Another of the Tuesday regulars told me the news last night. Apparently by the end she was drinking a fifth of vodka every day and not eating at all.
I seem to be more affected by this passing than by the passing of my friend Mark almost exactly a year ago & I don't know what to make of it.
