On that last visit with Mim, we left Peter talking with her while John & I hightailed it, at her request, to where she'd been living. There were some books she wanted - Helen MacInnes! - and other things she wanted to ensure came to me. What a surprise to find a dvd with three Lord Peter Wimsey mysteries - my guess is it would have been my Christmas present.
Just came across it again. Discovered that it includes The Nine Tailors. How ironic! One of my first Ah ha! moments in my family relationship came about thanks to watching that when it first aired on PBS, back in the 1970s.
I was curled up on the couch, watching, when Mim came into the living room. She took one look at Ian Carmichael, made up to look in his twenties, and made a scathing comment about how ridiculous he looked.
In one of the first instances of not automatically agreeing with Mim, I made so bold as to say we had to give them a wide berth in attempting to age the 50+ year old actor. Mim got immediately defensive, rebutting with, "I didn't say anything."
But she had. And she had made what was a typically Mim comment - mean & nasty, when nothing need be said at all. Then denied ever saying it.
How many times had Mim said something harsh about something or someone, only to deny deny deny if I took exception to the bit of nastiness? Countless. And I always ended up feeling like it was I who was off base, wrongly impugning my sister's character.
What was so unusual about the episode involving The Nine Tailors was that I'd been audio taping it - this was before the days of even beta max. The entire exchange was caught on tape. There Mim was, being unnecessarily critical about a character she knew I enjoyed, there I was taking exception to her slam, and there she was again, arguing she'd said nothing.
That might not seem like much, but it was wildly enlightening to me. I wasn't crazy, she could be unreasonable mean & completely deny it if held to account.
And here I am, with the very episode playing on my teeny dvd player, as I dig out the computer studio. Watching it, thanks to Mim. What a lovely, sweetly ironic full circle.
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