I secretly thought I might be the beneficiary of her no-alcohol status, but was rudely awakened from my wine lust when she announced she had no intention of parting with her collection.
"What good is it to you now?" I asked during a recent visit. I knew she had some health issues and thought I could remove the temptation from her home.
"Just because I gave up the privilege of drinking doesn't mean I've lost my cotton-picking mind," she retorted. "I get a great deal of satisfaction in that collection. I can almost tell you where each bottle was purchased and what we were doing. I am not ready to let it go. I may never let it go.
"Hell, I may pack it up and take it to heaven with me."
Liddy makes an impact on first impression. I always thought of her as a shorter, stockier version of actress Sandra Dee. For the last seven years, she operated her own personnel services business, elbowing her way through those who would try to limit her career rise. At 53, she still had fire, although picked her battles more carefully.
It used to be Liddy and Jerry, but he died in 1993 of a rare pneumonia, leaving her emotionally crushed and clueless about her future.
I've known them since I was about 10 years old. I always thought they were related because my mother referred to them as my Aunt Liddy and Uncle Jerry. Turns out, they were like family, only didn't come from the blood kind.
The couple met towards the end of the 1960s. They were married three months before Jerry was sent off to Vietnam in 1968. He returned a year later, but Liddy said some of her husband was missing and lost. As a child, I wondered what part didn't return. I clearly remember searching his feet for missing toes.
They bought 20 acres near Sweet Home, Oregon and settled down. Jerry worked in construction and Liddy ran the farm. I spent several summers on the farm, learning how to buck hay, fix fences and castrate sheep.
When I look back on that time, I realize my learning curve involved so much more than farming.
In the winters, when construction work and farm life slowed, Liddy and Jerry would travel. By the time I arrived in June, after school recessed for summer, I spent the first week hearing about their adventures in France, Italy, Spain and Portugal. They also took long weekend trips to the wine country in California. Those trips sparked their interest in making wine.
