from Terry Fife

Terry Fife said...

During 30 years of friendship, Kit and I spent hundreds of hours watching movies together. We spent even more time discussing them--immediately after a screening, if we were lucky enough to be together. But usually we reviewed and rehashed films during our lengthy and frequent phone chats.

The day after her sudden death, a flood of films rushed through my mind. What were the first movies I had seen with Kit? What were the last ones we discussed? What was the last film she saw with Phil, and with each of her kids? What about all those wonderful and unusual movies at the RMWFF she so adored and shared with so many others.

Despite the fact we both considered ourselves fairly sophisticated and discriminating film buffs, the recurring image in my mind earlier this week was of a really BAD movie we had seen together, and of Kit's unique ability to sense good from bad, and to simply, and sometimes outrageously, say so.

It was a hot, humid day in the summer of 1977. Kit and Laurie Sprague (a college friend of mine who had introduced me to Kit, whom she had known since high school) and I decided to cool off in one of Michigan City's air-conditioned movie theaters. The pickens, I recall, were slim, but we finally settled on "You Light Up My Life," a film known for its popular theme song made famous by Debbie Boone, but actually lip-synched by some utterly forgettable actress. We were prepared for mediocre, but figured there would be some redeeming features of the film to make it worth our time (which we had lots of in those days) and our money (which was in much shorter supply).

About twenty minutes into the film, Kit looked at Laurie and at me, and pronounced, "this film is so bad, we should demand our money back."

Laurie and I looked at each other, wondering if it was even possible to request a refund. Kit, on the other hand, was both confident and determined. Laurie and I made our way out of the darkened theater while Kit made a bee-line for the box office. There she politely but firmly informed the person in the booth that "the movie was simply so bad we would not be able to continue watching it." Whereupon our tickets were fully refunded and we headed straight for an ice cream store.

The next year, "You Light Up My Life" actually won an Oscar for its theme song, but it remained the bottom-line barometer of bad films for us over the years.

Kit was a radiant and brilliant light in my life. A firecracker who relished burning from both ends, she lit up many lives and illuminated many truths along the way.

Terry Fife
Chicago, Illinois