I did go to Fred's memorial service and left the GLBT Center on 13th Street in a real emotional state. There were some wonderful speakers, friends of Fred's from college, grade school, all the gay causes he worked on from the 1960s to his death, a former student from the Harvey Milk School, where Fred was the first teacher, a director of Hettrick Martin, the foundation supporting the school's creation, his brother Richard who's seven years older than Fred, and friends from the Chrus. Fred had planned this service, so he wanted two of my arrangements performed. "America the Beautiful" proved too difficult to be prepared in two rehearsals so a tape was played from its first performance from 1985. They did sing live my arrangement of the Cryer-Ford "Old Friend."
So, while the Chorus was singing this arrangement, standng in front of the Chorus' AIDS Quilt with 147 stars, each star bearing the name of one of the 147 members to die of AIDS, all these memories of friends who were dead pr no longer in touch with the Chorus, many of whom sang my arrangements in my years arranging for the Chorus from 1980 to 1998, hit me hard and I wept through the entire memorial service. At the end, a video collage of Fred's life included footage of dead friends like Jimmy Festa, who worked at City Opera, or Richard Halpern who was a former actor, and I had to leave. I was in no mood to socialize; I was wiped out and wanted to get home for a good cry.
Still, it was truly a beautiful event.
