1995. My best friend of many years and I saw the first brochure from Ashton Drake and were entranced. We shared a love of old movies, costumes, the glamour of old Hollywood, and being fellow queens on the show circuit here in NC.
Richard Steven Swamp, aka Ashley Reynolds, was a well-established female impersonator, title holder of many pageants and much beloved artist here in NC. We had known each other since high school and were truly soul mates, not in the romantic sense, but more in the long-lost twin sense. In 1995 Ash had already been HIV positive for a little over 10 years.
We hemmed and hawed and finally caved, ordered Premiere and Red Venus and most of the first collection of clothing. They were to represent our alter egos based on hair color, redhead for Ashley and blond for me (Autumn Hunter).
Those of you who jumped on that first band wagon will recall that first collection was plagued with cards from Ashton Drake saying "we apologize for the delay, etc., taking longer etc., we're cancelling your order etc. you must call if you want the order to remain. Months of this.
Ashley finally began to show real symptoms of AIDS throughout 1995. I cared for him at home, hospital bed in the living room, all that. Home Hospice called in March. Ashley succumbed to her illnesses on Mother’s Day 1995. May 14th.
My company had been trying to make me take a promotion for two years, I refused it over and over, I would not leave Ashley. With her gone there was nothing holding me back and they twisted me a little and I took the promotion. Moved to a larger centrally located city in NC on July 4th, 1995. The first week of August came and I got another one of those postcards, delay sorry cancelling your order. I was now in a smaller apartment in a new city, without my best friend who was to share Gene with me. I was half thinking of letting the cancellation stand, did not think I would want to do it without her.
Lo and behold, a week later I get a large package, what I had ordered from the first collection. Through tears and a broken heart, I fell in love with Gene. Through playing with Gene (I changed her daily in the beginning) I worked through my grief and poured some of my feelings of being unmoored into this little 17" lady. I discovered, a mile from my apartment, a little shop called The Doll Market. Popped in one weekend and surprise! There was Gene! I popped in more often after that and Gary bought me Monaco for my birthday that summer, so I had all three dolls from the first collection. Then began picking up the outfits Ashley and I had not ordered.
Come the fall and we made our weekly visit to the store to gawp at the beauties and there was some weird thing called 'a signing' taking place on the sidewalk outside. No clue what that was all about, we just came to look at Gene. Then we found out the guy out there signing stuff was the creator of Gene! Gary ran home to grab some stuff to have signed, we bought Pin Up, we chatted, local NC boy makes it big, was charmed by Mel, chatting more, bonded over our roots and have been friends forever more.
My love for Gene grew and grew as my involvement in her world did. I started working at The Doll Market part-time, stayed with them nearly 20 years until they finally closed the retail store part of the business. They had grown to be one of the largest physical doll stores in the world by that time.
My connections to Mel deepened as well, I became friends with some of his family and would see him when he 'came home' unrelated to the doll business. His cousin's husband was the realtor who sold us our house.
Through all of this, and all the hundreds of deep friendships I have made knowing Gene and her world, my first and deepest connection is my lost best friend. Gene and her world are my memories of Ashley. Her style, poise, grace, humor, verve, loyalty, beauty, all that was her. All reside in this 17" doll we all have loved so.
If you made it this far, thank you for reading.
Dear Mel, thank you for the gift of your daughter to the world, and Gary and I thank you and Charlie for the many years now of friendship.