It was a no brainer for Patricia Altschul to spend a superb portion of her new memoir honoring her late butler, Michael Kelcourse.
“He was a member of the family,” Altschul, 84, solely advised Us Weekly whereas selling her memoir, Eat, Drink, and Remarry: Recollections from a Lifetime of Artwork, Class, and Southern Attraction, launched on Tuesday, November 11.
“He was the consummate skilled, however we additionally felt like he was a member of our household,” she continued. “He lived right here and was with us virtually day by day. Even on his days off, a number of instances, he wouldn't need to go anyplace or do something however come over and make dinner or play with the canine.”
Altschul introduced Kelcourse's dying in October 2024 with an emotional Instagram submit. Kelcourse's dying got here years after he suffered a uncommon acute spinal stroke in February 2021.
“He deserved to be memorialized, and I needed to try this,” she advised Us. “He was with me [for] 18 years. 18 years is a very long time.”
Altschul recalled hiring Kelcourse in 2004, after the dying of his former boss, who she described as “an historic dowager who maintained an infinite property” in New York.
“We met, and I preferred every little thing about him,” she wrote, revealing that Kelcourse was her companion when she was taking a look at new properties, together with Altschul's iconic Charleston mansion. When Southern Attraction premiered in 2014, Kelcourse turned a breakout star.
“Michael turned the resident knowledgeable on cocktails and every little thing home, and so many followers wrote to him for his housekeeping recommendation that we needed to incorporate an ‘Ask Michael' button on my web site,” Altschul recalled.
She additionally made it clear that they by no means had a romantic relationship.
“I've hassle writing the phrases. Did I ever have a romantic relationship with Michael? No … God, no,” Altschul shared. “The connection between an employer and a butler is totally skilled and constructed on belief and mutual respect. Interval. Please don't ask once more.”
All joking apart, Altschul obtained actual when she recalled the morning that Kelcourse had his stroke in her guide.
“As he fell to the ground, he pulled the telephone down with him and managed to press the ‘All web page' button. ‘Name an ambulance,' he stated into the speaker. ‘I'm having a stroke,'” she wrote. “I used to be asleep upstairs however wakened once I heard his panicked voice and instantly dialed 911.”
After greater than a decade, Southern Attraction remains to be displaying off Charleston's allure, magnificence and naturally, drama, and season 11 shall be no totally different. Bravo introduced in Might that the truth present was renewed for season 11 — and filming had already begun. Capturing wrapped mid-summer, based on social media posts from the forged. […]
Altschul's son, Whitney Sudler-Smith, “raced” to Kelcourse's room and “put a pillow underneath his head” till the ambulance arrived. The spinal twine stroke left him paralyzed.
“The information of his situation — and the horrible uncertainty of his future — was devastating,” she wrote.
Kelcourse moved to a full-time care facility in Florida to be “near his household” within the years previous his dying.
“Fantastic, devoted, sort, and exceptional-these have been the phrases folks used to explain Michael,” she wrote. “He was all that and a lot extra.”
Eat, Drink and Remarry is out now.
