Author’s Note
All the human characters in Brush with Death are fictitious, but some of the nonhuman characters are very real, and worthy of special mention.
 
Chapel of the Chimes. Oakland’s Chapel of the Chimes provides services as a crematorium, columbarium, and mausoleum—but its neighbors know it as a historic landmark that welcomes visitors with open arms. Founded in 1909, the columbarium has undergone numerous expansions and changes in response to the evolving needs of the surrounding community.
The illustrious architect Julia Morgan—most famous for her work on Hearst Castle—took over the design of the building in 1926, reworking older areas and adding new sections inspired by the dramatic Romanesque Revival and Gothic styles she loved. Morgan worked with local and Old World artisans skilled in concrete tracery, ironwork, and the decorative arts. Natural elements are echoed in stained glass, mosaic, and murals; complex groin vaults, quatrefoil windows, and Byzantine designs abound. What she couldn’t find locally, Morgan unearthed in her travels—sumptuous historic decorations were brought over from Europe and seamlessly integrated into Chapel of the Chimes’ tranquil maze of intimate, unique chapels and chambers.
The cyclical nature of life and death is reflected in the elements of water, sky, and lush gardens included throughout the columbarium. Morgan also installed innovative electric skylights that are still opened on sunny days to invite in the light and air. Even today canaries are kept to sing near the fountains, and when the skylights are open wild birds swoop in to enjoy the gardens.
After Julia Morgan’s retirement in 1951, Aaron Green, an associate of Frank Lloyd Wright, was hired to design an addition to Chapel of the Chimes. Though the new section is distinct from the old—with majestic, sweeping rooms replacing the older, more personal chambers—Green included many elements from Morgan’s decorative designs. Here, again, the elements of garden, sky, and water are prominent, and are reflected symbolically throughout the columbarium and newer mausoleum sections of the building.
Despite yet another expansion in the 1970s and 1980s, Chapel of the Chimes retains its intimate appeal. Located at the end of Piedmont Avenue, the columbarium offers concerts, recitals, and holiday celebrations, and invites the public to enjoy its history and beauty. Chapel of the Chimes is not associated in any way with the neighboring cemetery, and any and all details about financial issues and business matters are entirely fictional products of the authors’ imaginations.
 
La Fornarina. La Fornarina, by Raphael Sanzio of Urbino, is a real painting residing in the Palazzo Barberini, at the Galleria Nazionale d’Arte Antica. Any and all insinuations that it was replaced with a copy are purely fictitious and were fabricated for the sake of the story. Otherwise, the painting’s history is accurate as represented within these pages. La Fornarina, or “the little baker girl,” is an exquisite painting of a young woman whom Raphael may very well have loved and even secretly married, though there is still a great deal of controversy over this interpretation. The botanical symbols of fertility in the background were indeed unveiled during a recent cleaning, as was a small ring on her finger that is believed to have been painted over posthumously by Raphael’s students in an effort to avoid speculation over the lady’s identity . . . and her relationship to the artist. Raphael died on his thirty-seventh birthday, shortly after completing La Fornarina.