Christine Cook

Mom adored her family above all else but close behind was her love of a fresh baguette with Turkish feta, Chopin’s Nocturne No. 2, cold rosé, John Steinbeck’s Cannery Row, and laugh-out-loud puns -- preferably bi-lingual ones. Once while cooking breakfast together I asked if she would like one egg or two, and half in French she replied, “un oeuf is enough.”

How did Elliott and I get so lucky to have this person as our mom?

Born and raised in Persia to a Russian mother and Armenian father, Mom’s older brother George was a mischievous prankster and her best friend for life. In a remarkably selfless act, her mother, Sima, sold her beloved piano to buy Mom a plane ticket to America, and on her 18th birthday, Mom flew halfway across the world to attend college in Los Angeles. She already spoke five languages and was a skilled pianist and painter. Soon she became a cheerleader, sorority sister, and homecoming princess -- and a deeply patriotic American.

Mom had two good marriages: The first was to our dad, lovable Leonard Lowe, who after a few years in Hollywood together, moved us to Newport Beach in 1966. When their relationship deteriorated in 1971, Mom packed up Elliott and me and took us halfway BACK across the world to Tehran, Iran to stay with her mother. We enrolled at the same grammar school Mom had attended, and we visited Paris, London, Rome, Beirut and New York City before returning to Newport Beach in 1972. Mom's second marriage was to the love of her life, William “Bill” Cook, a Southern gentleman who shared her devotion to classical music and backyard rose gardening, and who pretty much worshipped her homemade stroganoff and vast repertoire of soups. Mom and Bill traveled the globe during their 30 years together, befriending sheep in Ireland, kangaroos in Australia and blue-footed boobies in the Galapagos. Though devastated by Bill’s passing in 2005, Mom made sure their garden continued to thrive, remained a prolific watercolorist (she was a Watercolor West three-time signator), played tennis into her 80’s, enjoyed weekly bridge with her pals, and relished her role as bookstore volunteer at the NB Public Library.

Ever loyal, Mom had both lifelong and local friends who meant the world to her, and she studied art for years with just one favorite teacher. She'd been a member of the Newport Beach Tennis Club since 1967, was her gym’s longest-standing charter member (1981-2021) and her rescue cat Mollie was her sole housemate for 16 years, lazing across Mom’s lap for hours while she read in her recliner. Mom even put the “keep” in “housekeeper” by employing hers for nearly 40 years.

Mom often marveled at her good fortune to have her entire family living in her town “under the same small patch of sky.” She was happiest getting silly with her kids over cocktails, and loved her daughter- and son-in-law as her own. Close with all six of her grandchildren, she regaled them with her jigsaw puzzle skills, epic French toast feasts, cozy couch for watching old movies, endless inside jokes, and 13 years of week-long goofy staycations on Balboa Island all piled into one summer rental house together.

Did Mom live a life of good humor? She did — and so much more — and she will be profoundly missed by us all.

We love you, Mom!