RIP Oona O'Neill Chaplin (May 14, 1925 - September 27, 1991)

Photo by Francis Goodman, September 1954

"Oona O'Neill was born with a broken heart. Knowing that, it was wonderful to make her laugh. When she laughed, she sounded like a very soft little bell ringing. Then, too, there was that marvelous bawdy side of her, when was funny and always accurate. In all the years of knowing each other we never once had an argument. I used to wonder why. I know, now, why. She could understand eight sides of every situation. However, understanding is not a point of view. She knew what to let fall away and what to embrace.

Oona was brave. But she could not put an end to the deep mourning in which she lived until her death.

Oona, that bright beautiful red rose. 

But the wind was blowing softly, taking petal by petal. 

Oona Chaplin died of a broken heart."

--Carol Matthau, Among The Porcupines, 1992