The Ludmila Confessions

I was working as a representative for the “House of Seagram’s” and promoting their products in all of Caracas’s most elegant restaurants, bars and private clubs including Country Clubs and Polo Clubs with those handsome Venezuelan, Argentinians and Chilean men. I ended up at Walter’s high class liquor store, doing a promotion for Seagrams. I walked into this liquor store to set up my promotional display and advertising posters; after all, I was “Miss Seagram of Venezuela” at that time. Unknown to me the owner Walter had his own brand of imported Scotch, called “Dundee,” so I was there trying to lure away sales from his own brand.  But he invited me to go out to lunch with him, I was hungry and it was that time of the day, so I accepted his invitation,

I said to myself, “I don’t care if he flirts, I could never fall in love with a man like that.” Thirties, not too handsome, losing his hair and just average build. Well, how incredibly wrong I was! He wrapped me around his little finger like magic; he only had to whistle and I would come running to him. The place where I was taken to lunch was a beautiful French restaurant, exceptionally elegant, decorated so tastefully complete with soft candle light, violins and a menu boasting the most exotic and varied gastronomic delights. At that time I had never imagined there could exist such a truly romantic and seductive atmosphere- especially next to a liquor store! You can imagine my surprise to see all of this opulence, since from the age of three, with our journey from war torn Russia and through Europe and finally to Venezuela, I had been living very frugally with my family, always on the edge of poverty.

Suddenly I was falling in at the deep end, learning a new and hopefully better life.

This was the first time I had seen a menu to order from.  At that point Walter realized that I did not know that the man ordered for the lady, so he proceeded to educate me as to what the correct procedure was. I told him and he ordered for me, took his advice and let him recommend the various drinks for each course. At all the other social functions I had attended in the past, at Polo clubs and receptions, all the meals and drinks were just there for the taking, no ordering required. What an experience this was. I was adjusting my “learning curve” for future use in the “university of life”.

This experience totally dazzled me and over time a long major love affair transpired, though I was only seventeen at the time. I had to continue with my modeling job, and other work as well as social activities, though I usually saw Walter every day at some point. I was completely swept off my feet with him, for his love, care and affection, although by now he had admitted that he was married– at the time it did not seem to matter. Later he took me to New York to meet his mother, I hadn’t met her in all this years, although I met his children,  and we had been in Balnerios together.   His wife went after me with a gun one night when we arrived from the beach, Walter and I,  so now we met in New York not at the home in Caracas.

I got a bouquet of flowers for his mother, and as I gave her the flowers she said, “No, don’t ever bring me flowers, they are very dirty!”.  I later learned that in Europe when she was young, she was one of those women that smoked cigars and wore pants and rode a motorcycle! Not at all what I was expecting. But Walter never failed to teach me how his mother would do it, so I could iron Walter’s shirts properly for example. New York was pure magic; you can imagine my excitement as a young woman of seventeen. It started snowing that evening, and I had to see how it felt to walk with my lover on Riverside Drive, over to the upper East Side in the snow.  Later his mother said, “Tomorrow we take her shopping, she needs a coat and boots, not heels if she’s going to walk in the snow!”. I still have a picture in front of her apartment building with the fur coat she gave me. After my past life living in third world Venezuela, I was being whisked off on a “first class” magic carpet ride with excellent “in flight” service to the great metropolis of New York, with all its magical and dazzling lights, beautifully dressed people, the hustle and bustle, the traffic, and unbelievably tall buildings! I was completely amazed and overcome by what I saw– it was magnificent. I thought it was a dream and I wondered when I would wake up!