Two Friends: Sheila and Daisy

This is a picture of two friends: the beagle Daisy Mae and the diva Sheila Nadler in what she calls her “domicile” on West 72nd Street. I have been thinking of both a lot recently.

Sheila is very ill; Daisy is dead. Read Daisy’s obit here.

I met Sheila before I met Daisy. I was in Brussels in 1991 reviewing the world premiere of “The Death of Klinghoffer” by John Adams for The Wall Street Journal.

The real life high-jacking of the Achille Lauro, a cruise ship, by Palestinian terrorists in October 1985 inspired the opera. When their plans went awry and the sun addled their reptile brains, they tossed the elderly Leon Klinghoffer overboard in his wheelchair.

If you wish to showcase the plight of the Palestinians and the taking of their land in 1948, this is possibly not the ideal event. I mean, Klinghoffer was murdered, he didn’t absentmindedly roll off the deck. The problems with the show started with the title.

Sheila stood out as Mrs. Klinghoffer who sings the piece’s only memorable aria: a gut-wrenching explosion of anger directed at the feckless captain.

We met off stage a few months later. My new partner, the Great B- Minus Director, was her old partner. But we worked it out. 

Daisy was rescued by the Humane Society in New York and quickly became Sheila’s favorite beagle despite stiff competition from Minnie, Mellie and Hattie.

Sheila stopped singing ten years ago after a career that took her to Paris, London, San Francisco, Santa Fe, St Louis, Tel Aviv and Milan.

Never a happy walker, she took to her bed eating mac and cheese and black and white cookies. Dementia has reduced her pleasure in her sedentary life; friends, colleagues, exes stopped calling. It is unlikely that there is an Animal Planet segment she hasn’t seen.

 Dogs never forget a human, the good ones and the bad ones.