回复：【长篇阅读】公子的传记

Ivy’s husband became seriously ill with a cancerous brain tumor, and he was sent to a nursing home in England to live out his life as a vegetable. Whenever Taylor was assigned to do a movie there he put Ivy on the MGM payroll “To take care of my typing” so that she would be able to visit her dying husband.
Thus, the relationship began. Ivy continued going to college and worked for Bob, and often spent time caring for Ruth. She became a psychiatrist, worked on President Kennedy’s staff for the mentally retarded.
When her first husband died, she remarried and settled in Los Angeles.Ursula and Ivy became very friendly: as Dr. Mooring describes their relationship, “We are just like sisters.”
Ivy said Bob always did the work he had hired her to do—especially his correspondence—and she put him at ease when she said she would handle his letter-writing for him during his illness. “After all,” she said, “I got paid for doing it. Don’t you think it’s time I did my work at long last?”

Bob dictated three form letters: one to his fans, one to his business associates, and the other to his very close friends. He signed each one personally.
April, 1969
Dear Curly—
Believe me old Buddy I’d be happy to let Ursula take care of my letter writing for me, however, I’ve been married to her fifteen years now and I still can’t even decipher her shopping list. She writes even worse than you do and I know you’ll admit that’s pretty bad. Therefore, you’ll just have to settle for an occasional note from me until I feel like going back to work on the tape recorder.
My third trip to the hospital was the roughest of the bunch and I sure hope that they’re through carving on me for awhile. I’ve lost more weight and just don’t feel like I could take anymore of that nonsense.
The doctors all seem optimistic, and I wish that I could be, too, however I somehow just don’t trust them too much or feel that they know all there is to know about my case.
We sure have enjoyed your periodic newsy little notes and apologies for not having replied much sooner—that will get better as we go along. Ursula is fine as are the children and I am hopeful of being well enough to take them all to the River as soon as school is out.
Your idea of making a little jaunt to California sure was a good one, old Buddy, and I guess you know there just ain’t anybody I’d rather see than you; however, the way I’m feeling now makes me think that you might just be wasting your time Maybe we can do it a little later on . . . either there or here. Sure do hope so.
Always,
Dilly

Tom knew Taylor didn’t type this one. Curley was misspelled, for one thing, and it was too formal—almost as if it had been a news release.
In May, Taylor was back in St. John’s.The doctors told Ursula the time had come. He would go into a coma . . . and then the end. Terry took the news like his father would have wanted him to with no tears. Tessa withdrew and remained silent. They did not visit Bob in the hospital, but he asked Art to buy Terry that new bike he wanted. Art drove home from the bicycle shop by way of the hospital and asked Terry if he would like to see his father.
The boy didn’t answer but Art said, “Your mother would be very pleased.”

Ursula was pleased, and of course, Taylor was pleased butTerry did not know what to say and leaned heavily on Art for support. He thanked his dad for his new bike, the one he never would have gotten if Taylor had been in good health, but which was a last gesture to his son.
In his last days Taylor spoke of nothing but Ursula. When she was not in the room he persistently expressed his desire that everyone look after her. He never spoke to her about what she was going to do when he was no longer around, rather about the good summer coming up.

Dale Robertson, who would eventually replace Taylor in Death Valley Days, came to the hospital but was only able to control his emotions for a very brief time. He walked out into the corridor, but Art had to take him into a private room. “I just can’t believe it!”
Meanwhile friends were frantically calling Bob’s business manager regarding his estate. He has willed 50 per cen to Ursula and the children, and 50 per cent to Ruth, now a vegetable who never knew her son was dying. But there was no cash. The major operation in October had cost ＄25,000 and the others close to it. Barbara was still billing the Taylor estate for alimony which was her way of possessing Bob to the end.

It was suggested that the ranch be mortgaged, but nothing was done, and Ursula would be left with 113 acres worth ＄1 million and little else until hopefully she could sell the property.
Tom received another form letter. Dilly said he was still trying to put on some weight, but that could change at any time. The kids were doing well at school—Tessa had straight A’s, but Terry couldn’t care less. He said if he wasn’t able to go to the desert in June, he’d get a practical nurse and send Ursula and the kids.

Chapter ⅩⅤ（最终章）
At the time of Taylor’s hospitalization, twenty-four-year-old Michael Thiess was living in a motel but spending weekends at the ranch while he was recuperating from hepatitis. Previously he had been in Camarillo State Hospital under heavy sedation; though he was still taking drugs under the doctor’s care, they were slowly decreasing the dosage.
Because he was not trusted with large amounts of sedatives, Ursula had been taking his drugs to him at the motel during the week.

On May 24th he and his sister, Manuela, were together on the ranch, but because he was acting peculiarly, the psychiatrist told Art to keep a close eye on him. The following day he returned to the motel and on Monday, May 26th, Ursula found her son dead. She immediately called his doctor who summoned the police. Art rushed to the scene where Ursula was talking with detectives.
After several hours of extensive questioning, she collapsed.
She had been under a terrible strain for over a week, dashing to the hospital, back home, to and from the motel where Michael was, and worried every minute that Bob would need her. She wanted to be with him during this critical period.

The newspapers hinted that an overdose of drugs had caused Michael’s death, and it was an apparent suicide. A year ago he had attempted to take his life by cutting his wrists.
Police listed Michael as a “struggling actor” who after a year in prison in Germany for trying to kill his father,George Thiess, returned to the United States where he was convicted five times on charges ranging from assault and battery on a policeman to possession of marijuana.
Michael was never mentally stable and whatever life he had was wasted. Feelings were a mixture of regret and relief. Manuela, who believed in ghosts, said her brother would return as a spirit and “get her” because she had refused to speak to him the day before he died.

On Tuesday, Taylor’s condition worsened and Ursula was by his bed continually while her son's funeral was being arranged. Bob had been told of Michael’s death and insisted that he go home after the services on Thursday. The doctors refused but said that Ursula could remain with him at the hospital on Tuesday and Wednesday nights. Taylor argued. He wanted to be with his wife on the ranch—alone. She would need him more than ever, but in an atmosphere other than a hospital room. To convince Ursula he said, “The ‘farm’ is the only home I’ve ever really had and I want to see it—just one more time .. . ”
The press remained at the entrances of St. John’s knowing Taylor was there, but also aware that he might attend the funeral of his stepson. They had been told when he did leave, “he would walk out!”

The memorial service for Michael was a quiet one with only fifty people attending. Ursula arrived and her composure was remarkable. She was grieving for the loss of Michael but her greatest emotion during the service was that of fear—fear that she might not be with Bob at the end.
Michael’s hippie friends attended the impersonal funeral. Ursula, spending most of her time with Bob, had not been able to arrange a proper service that might have lent some warmth to the tragic burial of a young boy. The minister mispronounced his last name and his message could have been about anyone, because he had not been briefed.

Some of Michael’s friends who attended were there to work their voodoo of “spells and magic” for his new existence as a ghost.
Ursula invited these hippies to the ranch after the funeral. They had never been permitted there before, but Manuela played hostess to her brother’s chums while Art served—in another part of the house—the group who were paying their respects on behalf of Ursula and Bob.

Taylor’s refusal to take “no” for an answer to his going home one last time gave the doctor no alternative but to tell him the brutal truth—the disease had reached his bones and tissues. Shortly after he was told, Art walked into his room. Taylor winked and said, “Well, I guess Old Dad’s had it!” Art was so shaken he couldn’t speak, but Bob said he wanted to be taken home immediately, which brought Art back to his senses. “If Bob hadn’t said that, I think I would have bawled likea baby.”
Taylor’s insistence on coming home pretended problems. The first, of course, was his grave condition, and the other—the many newsmen who were waiting outside for a glimpse of Robert Taylor “walking out” of St. John’s. But nothing would change Bob’s mind. He said he did not want to be taken to the ranch in an ambulance or have attending nurses.

His doctor, who had been fighting off reporters for days, was told that if Bob left the hospital it had to be kept a complete secret. There was a discussion between Ursula, Art and the doctor, and they decided to grant Bob his wish but only if he had nurses in attendance day and night. Ursula said Bob did not want them because of the money involved, but the doctor said it would be this way or Taylor would remain in the hospital.
Art worked out a plan. Taylor would be taken out the refuse exit toa prearranged spot where he would be waiting to take his boss home. But at the last minute Bob became extremely weak and had to be placed on a stretcher and taken out of the emergency exit to the ambulance.

They somehow managed to avoid the press completely. Taylor was terribly concerned that he might be photographed and said he couldn’t understand why there were so many reporters assigned to cover his dying. Maybe at one time in his life it might have been worthy of print, but why now did they find his whereabouts so important?
He was taken home after Michael’s funeral and stayed for several days. His presence in the house was not good for the children because they saw him unable to cope mentally and physically, but Ursula, numb with strength, stayed by his side. Bob wanted her to care for him and resented the presence of nurses. Though his excuse for not wanting them there in the first place was the financial burden, he truly wanted to be alone with Ursula—wanting to say so many things, but not saying them.