“Gary, my hero,” said the wonderful Inez right after she saw my portrait of Gwen,”I want you to do one of me.” Flattery got her everywhere. I did, and this is it.

Inez is good people. She is the salt of the earth. She has seen it all and lived to tell the tale. And she was one of the ones who escorted me from the TSA security checkpoint, outside the Terminal 4 B Gates, to our restaurant, Matt’s Big Breakfast, in those long-ago days before the airport deemed me trustworthy enough to issue me a badge. (I just got my second badge renewal–looks like they haven’t found out what an unsavory character I am yet.)

I am guessing we live fairly close to each other, since we once rode the 32nd Street Southbound bus together early one Sunday morning, and once I was walking out of the same McDonald’s she was driving through. That’s good. She can be my neighbor anytime. She’s a Sweetheart.