"Gud fren beta dan pakit moni"

Jamaican Proverb

How do I capture the essence of Elizabeth Owen: creative chef, hostess extraordinaire, insightful conversationalist, voracious reader, loyal friend, news junkie, current affairs encyclopedia, movie reviewer, restaurant guide, people magnet, unrelenting advocate, letter writer, hard worker, kind, sharp, funny, direct, brilliant!!!

St Hugh’s High School

I met Liz at St Hugh’s. At 11 she was already adept at holding court, wielding comedy like a scepter, and we were drawn like moths to a flame. She entertained us in and out of class. She engaged Cookery Brown, terrorized Miss Chang and the various teachers who “supervised” her in detention, laughed at Miss Kingdom’s foibles, commiserated with Mrs. Carnegie about the difficulty of running a school, blew off the commerce teacher, generated endless excuses to avoid PE, and probably outranked Yvette Pussey as the reader of the most Mills & Boone romance novels. I remember fondly our days in Miss Morrison’s English class, where Liz--always the multi-tasker--excelled from the back of the class while cutting up with Joan Spencer, Enniver Nevers and me. One day Liz forgot to do her home work, but when called upon by Miss Morrison “read” her essay from a blank piece of paper.

US Reunion

I lost contact with Liz after high school when she moved to England and I came to the states. But soon we were back together in Maryland. It was a pleasure to get to know the adult Liz and cement my place in her tribe. Liz is a caretaker with a wide circle of friends and loves to entertain. I spent many hours in her home over scrumptious food, in great company. I remember the super bowl party she had the year the Red Skins won w/ Doug Williams as quarterback. Even coming from a culture that venerates cricket, I still find American football annoyingly protracted (why does it take 10 mins for 5 seconds of play???). But Liz' enthusiasm is contagious. By the end of the evening I was screaming like a lifelong fan and blowing my horn all the way home down 270.

The Jamaican Café (Caaf)

With encouragement from many quarters, Liz moved to California and opened the Jamaican Café (or as one her customers called it the Jamaican Caaf). It was a pleasure to have been part of that venture with other friends and supporters of Liz. Liz was in her element; all her skills and talents were deployed with amazing results. The Jamaican Café was more than a place for great food ("where bland is banned"), it was a community center with open membership presided over by a warm and engaging griot/storyteller. With due respect to Littler, I hope another venture with this spirit and sense of self-empowerment is in Liz' future.

Mrs. Obama

Omigod!!! How did we make it through this election cycle? Bill! Hillary! Pastor Wright! Jesse! Jesse, Jr! Palin! Olbermann! Matthews! MoDowd! SNL! Tim Russert! Liz was at her news junkie best, or worst. She soared with good news about our bwoy and plummeted with any dis. She was impatient when he wouldn't knock out his detractors and opponents. She read everything, watched everything, knew everything and wrote everybody. MSNBC should have hired her. She was dubbed "Mrs. Obama" by her beauty shop posse who felt she could advocate Barack's position better than Michelle (sorry Michelle). As Liz always reminds us, she is a "all or nothing girl" and she was all in for Barack. She supported him by substantial donations, by her one woman letter writing campaign, she canvassed door to door in Florida, registered voters, and coaxed/cajoled and/or twisted arms to bring friends and colleagues onboard. Her biggest regret of the campaign was that Russert was not on spot election night. She also had to kick Bill to the curb--the same Bill she used to love like Jesus loves little children. But through it all she renewed her belief in the wisdom and reasonableness of her fellow Americans. It was a pleasure to be on the mall with her January 20, 2009 to witness the culmination of our dreams, efforts and faith. Ok, we didn't actually witness it in the flesh as the news junkie was missing switching from channel to channel to hear the pundits and see all the action. :-) That's our Lizzy!


Happy Birthday Liz
Stay as sweet as you are.
Love Donnette