Covid-19 has just dealt a bitter blow to Brazilian high society. Socialite Lourdes Catão died at the age of 93, a victim of the disease, reports Hildegard Angel in Brasil 247. According to Hilde, Lourdes was in complete isolation, not even allowing deliveries or receiving newspapers. The only outside presences were two caregivers.
Read Hilde's article on 247:
Covid-19 has just dealt a bitter blow to Brazilian high society. Socialite Lourdes Catão died at the age of 93, a victim of the disease. And she certainly wasn't planning on dying. Days before being hospitalized, we arranged by phone to have lunch at my house after the epidemic, to reunite with her friends. She wasn't planning on getting sick. She told me: "I'm here very quietly, isolated. I don't want to go to the hospital." And every precaution was taken in that regard. Not even delivery was ordered, so Lourdes wouldn't risk getting infected. The newspaper also didn't enter the house, for the same reason. The only outside presence were her two caregivers, who took turns every two days. She missed her friends, who, also in isolation, couldn't come to see her.
Lourdes never relinquished her scepter of elegance. She was vain. At any moment, at home, anywhere, she was always impeccable, her hair styled, with a bow or ribbon in her hair, wearing a necklace, rings – and lately she had been showing off a large sapphire on her finger, and saying: “This ring belonged to my grandmother.”
A true representative of the golden age, not just of Brazil, but of the world. Alongside Thereza de Souza Campos, she formed the pair of the Most Elegant. While still alive, Thereza relinquished the title of "Top 10". Perhaps because she acquired another title, that of princess, through her marriage to His Imperial Highness Prince Dom João de Orléans e Bragança, and perhaps because she is not as vain and concerned with her appearance as Lourdes. No, I don't include Carmen Mayrink Veiga with the two, despite several reports doing so. There was a small age difference between them – Carmen was a little younger – and different social trajectories.
Lourdes was scandalously beautiful. Seeing her enter one of those trendy New York restaurants, like La Grenouille or Caravelle, was always an event. The tables would fall silent at the sight of the blonde, almost platinum, with her wavy, well-groomed hair, wrapped in furs or some tailored suit that could have been in a Bergdorf Goodman or Lord & Taylor window display. She knew what quality was.
Lourdes' secret was her enormous capacity for reinvention. When her marriage to Álvaro Catão ended, she moved to New York, with a brief stay in Paris where she had a boyfriend, and became a successful interior decorator. Her professional "open sesame" was her good social connections, such as with Beatriz Patiño, who gave her her Park Avenue apartment to decorate. And then came other jobs, and more. Lourdes also established herself in the New York real estate business. She would buy the property, renovate it, decorate it, and sell it for a profit. Her best credential was her own apartment in Manhattan, or her house in Connecticut.
She always lived well. Her house in Urca was luxurious, and anyone who wants to see its neoclassical facade can find it still untouched, even after it was sold. In Santa Catarina, where she moved after returning to Brazil, she created a private paradise in Lagoa da Conceição, Florianópolis, where she would take her dear friends from Rio de Janeiro, who would return amazed by the scene she had created, surrounded by gardens, flowers, and trees.
When Lucia Stone, widow of Motion Pictures director Harry Stone, died, Lourdes didn't waste any time. Lucia lived in one of Rio's most emblematic and coveted addresses, the Biarritz Building on Flamengo Beach. Her ground-floor apartment had access to the back garden, with its Art Deco fountains and sculptures, topiaries, and beautiful classic French landscaping, where the Stones held memorable parties in the city. Lourdes asked her sister, Helena Gondim, for help, who called with an offer to buy the property from Lucia Stone's heiress and niece, Loreta Burlamaqui. The sale was immediately closed. By the time the other potential buyers noticed, the keys were already with Lourdes, who had transformed the duplex into a precious jewel, with English furniture, chinoiserie, an air of refinement, and even the scent of Central Park South, New York.
With Helena's death, Lourdes took over editing the book *Sociedade Brasileira*, an initiative her sister had been working on for decades. It fell to Lourdes, the prodigal daughter returning to the social scene, to dictate "who was who" in society, in the exclusive catalog, a closed club where being listed meant free passage to social life, practically a badge of honor. After three editions, she stopped publication. And it was forever. She didn't have the temperament to withstand so much pressure from those who, at all costs, wanted to be included in those pages.
In her Biarritz apartment, and in that garden, she began hosting dinners and lunches, always prepared by her own cook, something she took pride in, which highlighted her refined skills as a great hostess. Yes, Lourdes belonged to a generation of women who stood out for knowing how to entertain with class, the finest china, silverware, crystal, the refinement of a well-crafted and highly personal menu. Even the flower arrangements were hers.
Lourdes' friends completed the scene. The true "social aristocracy." In my mind, I see them side by side, on those damask sofas and velvet armchairs, Maria Thereza Williams, Thereza Muniz, Thereza Castello Branco, Thereza de Souza Campos, Therezinha Noronha – the Therezas with an H, hallmarks of an era in which everything was, is, and always will be elegance.
The last time Lourdes' friends got together was on March 12th, her birthday. That was the start of the quarantine. Her daughter, Bebel Klabin, hosted a lunch at her red-brick house in Cosme Velho to celebrate Lourdes' 93rd birthday. It was all perfect. We greeted each other with elbow bumps, no more handshakes or kisses. There was a choro orchestra playing, which, at some point, got some of us dancing. Place settings were assigned at the table, Lourdes was elated at the head of the table. The placemats were designed by Lygia Mattos, and the birthday cake, decorated with forget-me-nots, was by Regina Rodrigues, the baker who uses the RR brand on her cakes and sweets. During dessert, the birthday girl gave a speech, declaring her happiness for the wonderful children she had, stating that she held no regrets of any kind – and concluding with a toast to Bebel, and the phrase: "My daughter, I love you very much!".
Bebel replied: “Mom, you were the greatest example in my life, the one I always tried to follow.” Applause. The big revelation of the afternoon was Bebel's announcement that her mother would be trading the Biarritz duplex for an apartment “without stairs” in Ipanema. This way, Lourdes would be more comfortable, Bebel more rested, and the Biarritz would lose its diva.
We knew that Lourdes didn't want to abandon her "masterpiece," that her wish was to live there in that setting forever. But she would never contradict her daughter. Nor did she need to. Fate took care of fulfilling her last wish.
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