NORA EPHRON

She's gone.

Many wonderful tributes to her have been written.

I wasn't aware of her. I loved the films she wrote -- stories, events, scenes that live on in my mind, which undoubtedly affected, to some extent, my thinking.

I looked up her credits, her successes -- she was nominated three times for the Academy Award for Best Writing (Original Screenplay): for “Silkwood,” “When Harry Met Sally,” “Sleepless in Seattle” -- she won the British equivalent to our Academy Awards for Best Original Screenplay for “When Harry Met Sally.” Her last film was “Julie & Julia.” She also co-authored the Drama Desk Award-winning theatrical production “Love, Loss, and What I Wore.”


So many characters she created touched me -- not their names but how they reacted, little things they did still seem real --I think that’s amazing --she created moments that you want to see again and again.

It’s sort of like what a mother does -- gives the child so many memories, deeply felt moments that continue to shape him or her for years and years after Mom is gone.

My Mom, sitting at my kitchen table, with a pen and music paper copying stuff -- eighth notes, chords, clefs -- she couldn’t read music. She just did it -- copied music that I desperately needed and couldn't afford to pay a professional to do it.

And my husband, John Cullum’s welcome home gift -- as I returned from a tour (the first time I’d been away from him) -- climbing the stairs. I heard a roar -- a huge thrilling chord from “Thus Spake Zarathustra” -- he’d bought sound equipment for me -- the real me -- what a gift -- that he perceived who I was, who I am.

And that’s what Nora Ephron gave me -- many moments, many visions of things that I cherished -- gestures, words that I’ll never forget.

Each film she created has them -- the something of Nora Ephron -- tenderness, womanliness, love, sex, and so many sweet, funny, awful incongruities that coincide with feelings I’ve had.

Yes, famous actors, producers, writers, all sorts of celebrities have mourned her with wonderful, deeply felt words. And she lives on, in the minds of many, many people, who didn't know her, to whom she gave precious visions of love.

If you were writing this, what moment or moments still ring in your mind?

Golly, I can't think of anything more important to say about someone who's gone -- Nora Ephron, you live on in our minds.

If you have time, here are scenes from some of those favorite movies.