D AV I D PAT R I C K C O L U M B I A mentioned how accessible she was to her patients. When one patient called her about her mammogram, the doctor took the call with the words to her patient: “Everything came out negative and I’m in the shoe department at Bergdorf Goodman…” Goodbye. Then, Drossman took the podium to thank the room and her family. This is the thing about “Mother of the Year” for the American Cancer Society: these women are serious about their lives, which include motherhood. They understand that they make a difference and part of that difference is comfort and part of that difference is the
understanding of responsibility we have to each other. They make it clear by demonstrating it. Diana does that with the American Cancer Society and she demonstrates that to her friends. It’s all an affirmation of life. With everything else going on in this insane world of ours, it is a comfort, no matter how fleeting, of what is possible when the women of valor (which is what the quality is) exercise their sense of responsibility to their family and their fellow man. Paula Zahn was the emcee of the luncheon, as she has been for as long as I can recall. Paula is a pro. She grew up in a family in the Midwest, with
a father who worked for IBM. Cancer took the lives of both of her parents. They left her, however, with that common sense of responsibility and it is evident even in her work. As an emcee, she is informed, empathic, and a professional at moving the occasion along. It was a great day, and I felt fortunate to have been there to witness it. It served as a reconfirmation that there are strong, stable, powerful people (women, in this case) among us working for a better world. Catching up in Paris. A few weeks go, over there, the American Friends of the Paris Opera and Ballet welcomed a group of 30 American philan-
thropists at the occasion of the most glamorous event of the year: the gala opening night of Benjamin Millepied’s first season at the Paris Opera Ballet. The evening was co-chaired by Olivia Flatto, Pamela Joyner, Ulla Parker, and Sutton Stracke. It was sponsored by Christian Dior and De Grisogono. The evening’s program included a new creation by Millepied entitled “Thème et Variations” from George Balanchine and the famous “grand defile”—a unique and powerful signature from the Paris Opera and Ballet including the whole company (154 dancers) as well as the school
M E E R A G A N D H I ’ S G I V I N G B A C K F O U N D AT I O N H E L D I T S G A L A AT T H E C A R LY L E H O T E L
Lucia Hwong Gordon 46 QUEST
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