Richard Brookhiser
I knew Harriet as a friend and, at one remove, as a therapist (she and my wife trained at the same post graduate institute in New York City). She was naturally gifted as a therapist--both warm, and shrewd, giving her patients the sustenance they needed, while spotting their defenses and internal contradictions.
As a friend she was a delight. Though she could not tell a joke, she was one of the funniest people I ever met: her laugh consumed her, and she had a wonderful vein of silliness (example: the word ugly-bugly, which, she explained, is thirty thousand times uglier than just plain ugly). She took pleasure in your joys, and was always up for something new.
More: she was as generous as she was loyal. She stuck by her friends through illness or disappointment, and gave of herself to help them through it.
She was sorely tried in her last years, by assaults to her body and to her mind. That is now over. I will miss her dearly. Rest in peace, Harriet.
Rick Brookhiser