One night shortly before she died, we had just finished watching a video on YouTube of Peggy Lee singing “Is That All There Is?” We both loved the song and the grainy black-and-white video of Lee’s nightclub performance of it. While it played, I held her hands and we sang the chorus, pretending we were dancing. “It’s so marvelous,” she said, giggling with a sound of delight and mischief, knowing that she was on the cusp of discovering if that was all there was. “I suppose people will think you are inheriting the Vanderbilt millions,” she said. “Boy, won’t they be surprised.”
