Formal Introductions

Beebe Grade wore the mantle of family matriarch with a sense of duty and a martial air. It was a duty to continue the good works of her father and mother—The Ardwold and Martha Beebe Foundation—and a matrimonial chore to maintain the social and business connections of her husband’s family. In the main Beebe was not kindly disposed toward the Grade family en masse; she found them far too concerned about money for her taste. Ted, of course, was different. She had married him for all the right reasons provided you were breeding prize cattle or racehorses but the union worked.

She could afford her family prejudices in part because Beebe was blissfully free of financial worries. Settled with an enormous fortune—and knowing whom to trust to manage it—Beebe only “worried” about money inasmuch as she wanted to leave her children a lot of it. She didn’t worry about running out of cash, or not being able to afford something she wanted. Still, there were things Beebe considered outrageously expensive and wicked extravagances.

Have you ever met anyone who truly possessed a vast fortune? I don’t mean a wealthy retired dentist, or even a well-heeled landlord but someone who had several homes and assets worth more than one hundred million dollars? Someone who purchased a vacation home in Bermuda and then rarely visited? Someone who owned a newspaper and a distinguished publishing house and purchased bonded originals from Paris fashion Houses? That was how Beebe Grade lived; she was free from class snobbery since she viewed almost everyone as an inferior. She didn’t judge others based upon material possessions because she knew that few people could afford to spend as she could. She didn’t covet things for herself and never owned a car that wasn’t made by General Motors. Beebe thought “fancy” cars were showy and a waste of money.

That is not to say that she did not appreicate quality or was without an enjoyment of some luxury. Beebe owned a Picasso (in her bedroom) and a Constable (in her living room) and she had at one time owned a Vigée-Lebrun that she subsequently donated to the ROM. Her real estate holdings—too vast to list here—included large tracts of urban territory in major cities across North America.

She was, to use a vulgar expression, filthy rich.

Beebe had assumed suzerainty over her family chiefly because of her close relationship with her late father. Ardwold Beebe Sr. had a rocky relationship with Ardie Jr. and had groomed his eldest daughter to take over the family business concerns after his death. Old Ardwold Beebe never expected his daughter to actually work; he wanted her to be able to retain the best and the brightest. Beebe’s subsequent marriage to Ted Grade—a brilliant merger of two fine old families—guaranteed both grandchildren and an addition to the brain trust that directed the Beebe family fortunes. Besides, Ted Grade was rich but he wasn’t rich and happily ascended to his new lofty position as Beebe’s consort and didn’t cause trouble.

Beebe, however, controlled the purse strings.

When Ardie lost his money he found himself living in reduced circumstances and, sadly, unable to continue his hedonistic lifestyle that took place on three continents. Ardie and his chums played in Toronto, Muskoka, Palm Beach, Bermuda and Europe. He dallied in Marrakech and Capri, Paris and Rome. Simpatico friends had homes in the south of France or a chalet in Gstaad and entertained generously and often. An apartment on the Upper West Side was a landing pad for a beach house on Fire Island with lovely laughing people who liked to gamble in Monte Carlo. Ardie danced at Studio 54 with a real countess and made the girls scream with laughter in Palm Beach and he looked good in black tie, jeans, sporting clothes or naked.

It was a hell of a lot of fun while it lasted.

Suitably chastened by Beebe for being a careless spendthrift—and not getting a handout as he expected—Ardie applied himself to his design and antique business with a steely determination. Commissions from Palm Beach socialites padded his bank account, while lucrative contracts in the Middle East saw the creation of entire resorts and towns. Ardie would never have as much loot as Beebe had but he wasn’t exactly a pauper. His previous clients became life-long friends who continued to purchase antiques, sell existing ones, or retain Ardie for his counsel in buying art at auction. Nice work if you can get it.

Beebe and Ardie had a younger sister named Margery who was quiet and fey. Margery had been unlucky in love (and not much good at cards, either) several times. Her first marriage lasted one year. Her second union—they didn’t marry—endured for three bumpy years and cost five million dollars to end. Her third marriage produced two children and ended in widowhood. Margery had tearfully confessed to Beebe that she intended to file for divorce the same week that her husband died on the golf course. Beebe and Ardie had drinks that week to discuss the funeral and she quietly confided to Ardie that “at least she won’t have to pay this one off!” and agreed with him when he pointed out that being a widow outranked being merely divorced.

Ted and Beebe Grade had been blessed with children; Jack was named after his grandfather Grade and a beautiful blonde daughter was rather haughtily named Clemens. Ardie had no children, of course, but Margery also had two children of her own. Her elder daughter was named Kat—short for Katherine—and the younger went by Suky, which was a family diminutive for Suzanne.

Beebe had also been slow in coming around to welcoming Ardie’s various partners into the family compact. She refused to meet Vladimir (a dancer) and she patently ignored his successor, a florist named Jason. She despised Todd, Christopher, Greg, Mike, Andre, Sheldon and the rest of them.

“How is That Greg?” Beebe would ask, looking over the rim of her glass, or staring down the dining room table.

Ardie would smile in response and say, “His name is not That Greg; just plain old Greg. He’s fine and sends you his best.” After the issue with money he never backed down with Beebe again.

Ardie had been officially single for a number of years—saving Beebe thorny problems with seating arrangements at social functions—but was hardly living a chaste lifestyle. Ardie was always going to provide a lot of chitchat for idle gossips and some of his amorous adventures did find their way back to Beebe’s ears.

The married industrialist who visited Ardie down south for a “weekend of golf” or the Member of Parliament who drank too much and “slept in the spare room” were topics that Beebe met with reserved silence and a faint smile from her thin lips. She revealed nothing about her personal thoughts.

Margery was malleable; Beebe told her what to do and when to do it. When Suky moved in with an unemployed drummer it was Beebe who visited the young man and talked reason to him so that he would see that there was no future—“why, none at all!”—to their union. A forgivable loan of, say, twenty five thousand dollars would ensure that he could pack up his damn drums and move to Vancouver and beat on them all day, but not with Suky Temple at his side.

When Suky decided to quit school and work in a feminist-lesbian (ugh) cooperative that sold macrobiotic food it was Beebe who told Margery to “turn off the bloody cash!” even though Margery cried and was distraught over her “little girl” living and working with women who didn’t shave their legs or wear brassieres. Soon enough poverty lost its charm and Suky shaved her legs and came home. In due course she took up with a nice young man and went back to school to earn a degree in art history.

Beebe’s own children turned out as expected given their upbringing and the focused attention of their Dear Mother. Pride of the pack Jack Grade was hale like his father and blessed with the same looks and temperament. He attracted people and opportunity and was destined to assume the publisher’s office of The Canadian Record. Educated at home and abroad he was tall, handsome and rich; Beebe expected that one day Jack would meet a suitable young woman and in due course a wedding—with receptions in Toronto and Bermuda—would ensue and Mr and Mrs Jack Grade would have two children.

Clemens—called Clemmy by her father and friends—was a duplicate of her mother in looks but nothing else. Quiet and reserved she had gone to school in Switzerland for many years and was currently studying literature in New York. She avoided Toronto—and her mother—but loved life at the cottage and had spent all of her summers at the Beebe place up in Muskoka. Clemens was close to her father and brother and enjoyed a cool friendship with Beebe. She had long ago accepted that her mother favoured Jack; it might not have been pleasant but it was true.