Hester Lillie Visits Portland in Autumn

My inspiring friend Hester Lillie is in Portland for the annual gathering of the Classical Mandolin Society of America , and she allowed me to kidnap her from the conference and take her out for a stroll in the leaves, a lunch of Indian food, and a scoop of Salt & Straw ice cream.

Hester Lillie and I were friends in Houston during the ten years I lived there, and she is an inspiration to me for many reasons. She took up classical guitar in her fifties, and she has stuck with it, with a shift to the mandolin. Wonderful calluses on her fingertips. She is currently teaching nine yoga classes a week and is marvelously flexible and balanced. She memorizes poetry. She went off alone to live in Argentina for a year and learn the tango. And here's the real test of her nerve: she allowed her daughter (a brilliant visual artist) to do a series of nude paintings of her when she was in her fifties, long before Aleah Chapin began winning awards for portraits of women with aging bodies. Hester Lillie is brave and vivacious, and she lives up to her intentions. What a woman.

I wanted a portrait of her, but she insisted on one of us together. So here's a double selfie in a window.