Charles L Smith March 1, 1926- January 16, 2019

As I read the news about Dad off the text from my sister, I remember I was thinking about the ending of Gore Vidal's memorial piece on Eleanor Roosevelt: "Whether or not one thought of Eleanor Roosevelt as a world ombudsman or as a chronic explainer or as a scourge of the selfish, she was like no one else in her usefulness. As the box containing her went past me, I thought, well, that's that. We're really on our own now."

Gore Vidal
The New York Review of Books
November 18, 1971

...yes: exactly that.