On the cover of My Life of Absurdity*, Chester in the last years of his life. We can see by his emaciated face that he is sick, but Anne-Christine who knew him at that time describes a man with demonstrative joy, happy to be in the company of children and in love with his cats.
We used to go on holidays to Moraira (a Spanish village located between Valencia and Alicante on the Costa Blanca), in a house that my parents had bought in 1962. It was called Casa Ana Cristina and was lost in the pine forest, but we still had a few neighbors.
In Pla del Mar (name of the small hill on which our house was located), the summers were the same from one year to the next...
On the other side of the pine forest that you had to cross to access it, Casa Griot, a rather imposing house belonged to Lesley and Chester Himes. The advantage of this pretty house over the others was its beautiful swimming pool, a promise of freshness during these hot summers.
We were very often invited there for endless baths (my parents and the Himes were friends since their installation in Moraira). Chester, despite his handicap, took baths with us, strapped in a sort of big black buoy (a big tyre inner tube!) and we played. He laughed heartily, I imagine he was happy to find a little carelessness and lightness.
Then Lesley would help him out and put him in his wheelchair by the pool under a small arbor and he would watch us play in the water.
I knew from my parents that he wrote books, but for a 10-year-old girl, it was pretty vague. I was also aware of his accident. No matter, for my brother and I he was a man who liked to laugh, to bathe in all simplicity with us.
I still remember his thunderous laugh during the many dinners and other celebrations at home. Chester liked to sit at the large rattan table on the terrace in front of the house, always in the same chair. He seemed to be enjoying mom's food and the good Spanish wine.
He told stories in his big voice (in English, my parents luckily spoke it well) and, for us, his presence was the assurance of going to bed late and staying with "the grown-ups".
Sometimes we went to their place, always for a final swim in the pool and then we had dinner under a sort of large veranda which was accessed via a large staircase. Lesley concocted nice meals. She was always imperturbable and dressed in white!
Chester’s cats accompanied these evenings. He had a passion for these animals (Abyssinian cats I believe). They were impressive and enigmatic and sometimes even a little scary.
Lesley and Chester then left this house, which was no longer convenient for him, and they settled (still in Pla del Mar) in a one-story house.
It wasn't until much later that I realized that we had a "somewhat special" neighbor. From these memories, there are a few photos left in the family albums and in my mother's library the works of Chester with this dedication "For Pierre and Nicole from Chester".
Anne-Christine T-M (January 2017)
Dedication to Anne Christine's parents.
* My Life of Absurdity (1976) is the second volume of Himes' autobiography.