[identity profile] quuf.livejournal.com 2013-10-10 11:47 pm (UTC)(link)
Don't know why it occurred to me to click on the photo, Charlie, but I'm so glad I did. What a beautiful tribute.

When I was in France 18 years ago I spent a couple days with the parents of a close friend. They lived in a village about an hour south of Paris in a lovely old house a block from the village church, which was built in the 14th century.

Like Carl, Pierre had all his tools in perfect order. As he showed me around his basement workshop, he held tool after tool up for my inspection, intoning in faulty English the year he'd acquired each: I got zees 'ammer een nineteen seurty-ett.