This will make you laugh: I’ve had a near-possessive crush on you since you came into my knowledge as a late teen.

Didn’t matter you were 20 years my advance. Heck, my grandfather had once said an older woman was one of a young man’s greatest gifts should he be willing to learn.

I’ve always been teachable. A great listener. Interpreter. An eager learner.

Those intoxicating eyes. The cocoa cream, flawless skin. That regal, mythical, yesterday’s-timeless-lady-meets-today’s-modern-woman presence.

To say nothing of that voice.

My god, that silky, come-hither-and-salivate voice that truly has no rival in the American, even global, song annals.

I can’t tell you the countless times I’ve written through the twinkle of nightfall to near dawn while your “Take a Look” masterpiece played in the distance. Your vocals have birthed many a Pamper-Her-Friday creative from my mind to both the hard and e-page.

When I saw you at the Hollywood Bowl a few years back, I sat enthralled . . . and immediately realized I had ample company: Men of all stripes, ages, and colors sat equally mesmerized, some even with their eyes intentionally closed, simply bathing in your majestic lyricism.

Yours was not simply a show. It was an experience. Together with your father’s heritage (you obviously were bequeathed his gifts, among them class personified!), you breathed life into quietly desperate men.

This will make you laugh but I knelt before you after the show and kissed your hand. “Thank you, my dear lady,” I somehow verbalized from a parched throat.

That dream never did come true.

Please come back. I know, I know, how selfish of me, right?

But I, we, have your music. And your father’s. Eternally.

This will make you laugh, Natalie: I still own a near-possessive crush on you. Trust me, every man has that silent, quiet-is-kept crush on a goddess–met or unmet.

Go on and laugh, Natalie. The naive writer is laughable, I know.

But it’s not funny to me.

There’s a cry in my soul soon to emerge.

Thank you for the timeless gift–of you. In God’s arms you’ve now arrived.

Do me a favor: When you see your father up there, give him a gentle kiss on the forehead and tell him Roy asked about him.

My most heartfelt thanks to you both.

Tearfully yet Gratefully,
Rg2

__________________

***

God, pamper Natalie to infinity . . . for me. -Rg2

© 2015 Pamper-Her-Friday by Rg2®