“Who is your mother?”

“Maxine Wolff-Porter better known as Maxx Wolff”

“I’m familiar with her work, but to my knowledge it hasn’t been shown for years.”

“No it hasn’t. It’s in a private collection now.”

“I remember when she passed away. I’m very sorry for your loss dear.”

“Thank you Peggy.”

Peggy envied the close relationship Bette obviously had had with her mother and couldn’t help but think of her own daughter Helena. She once dreamed that Helena would show an interest and share her passion for art but it was not to be. Peggy brought her full attention back to Bette as she continued expounding on her credentials.

“I did a five year combined graduate program at Yale and earned my Bachelor’s degree in Business Administration and Master’s in Art and Art History. After college I was offered a position at the Whitney Museum in New York City but I gave it up to care for my mother. I moved back to my parent’s home in Philadelphia and worked freelance as an art consultant. Shortly after my mother passed away I found out that my father had been diagnosed with prostate cancer. He’d seen how distressing my mother’s illness was for me so he didn’t tell me until it was already too far gone for treatment. I buried both my parents within six months of each other.”

“I’m very sorry Bette. That must have been devastating for you to lose both your parents in such a short time. Do you have any other family?”

“I have an older half-sister Kit. We have different mothers so we didn’t grow up together.”

“Kit Porter the musician?”

“Yes. You’ve heard of her?”

“Not only have I heard of her, I love her music. I have several of her albums. I would love to meet her someday.”

“That can easily be arranged.”

Peggy was so easy to talk to that Bette found herself sharing a lot more personal information than she intended.

”I’m sorry Peggy I didn’t mean to go off on a tangent about my family.”

“That’s perfectly alright dear. So how is it that you ended up in California?”

“I needed a change of scenery. A client suggested that I interview for the Directorship position  at the California Arts Center (CAC) in Santa Monica.”