A mustache comb — tiny and crafted of solid silver. In the photo, the auctioneer presents it with ceremony. That something this small has become an outsized part of the sale he's running is only because of the comb's owner.
I've avoided Sotheby's auction of singer/songwriter Freddie Mercury's belongings being conducted on behalf of his longtime girlfriend and confidant, Mary Austin. In a BBC interview, Austin stated she had to be "brave enough to sell the lot," to let go of the belongings of a man so creative, so compelling, so damn good-looking. Friends have sent the Sotheby's catalog to me, thinking, as the biggest Mercury fan they know, surely, I must want to peruse every page. After all, I cried for days when he died in 1991, pregnant with my first child and trying to comprehend the loss of such an intrinsic part of my youth. What they don't know is how difficult this is to process and how deeply I understand what Austin is going through.
