Wednesday, November 7, 2007

Good Joke Moonwater

Many years ago, after Moonwater saw the movie "Windwalker", there was a line in it she started to repeat that many of you know: "Good Joke Grandfather"! The humor & irony she said it with always made me laugh - & you know how contagious that laugh of hers was! And when she said this, it was usually accompanied by smiling that sparkly smile of hers, throwing her head back, & shaking a finger to the sky. I can see her & hear her do that right now - it's so easy.

As an aside, writing that just made me flash on those magnificently long, expressive fingers of Moon's (I was always jealous because I have such tiny hands). I could hardly take my eyes off them when she played guitar or told an animated story. The woman just had great hands period. Did you know that she had Simian Lines on her palms? Anatomically, humans are supposed to have two lines crossing our palms; in Palmistry, they're called the head line & the heart line. A Simian Line is when they're joined, & there's only one line. Interestingly, this is only supposed to happen as a result of a birth defect like Down's Syndrome or other ailments. When not associated with an ailment of some kind, a Simian Crease almost always occurs in men, not women (Being an RN, these statistics fascinate me). So, Moonwater truly was one in a million - I sure wish I could recall what her palm reader said! Even without remembering it though, we all know that Moonwater was magic. But I digress....

I wanted to tell you about "Good Joke Grandfather" for a reason: After a Tarot reading, sometime after seeing "Windwalker", Moonwater was told that she was going to die far away & all alone in some very remote place, with no one around her who loved her! She made constant jokes about it to the point where The Peanut Gallery would chime in: "Yup, we know, you're going to die all alone & far away", as we rolled our eyes.... At which point Moon would, of course, shake one of those slender fingers to the sky & say "Good Joke Grandfather". (She used the phrase quite liberally for all sorts of events & circumstances - and her timing & delivery was impeccable).

But when Moonwater was dying, as I held her hand & stroked her soft hair, I kept thinking: "Good Joke Grandfather, you sure pulled one over on 'ol Moonwater. She might be dying, but she's not far from home, & she's absolutely surrounded by loved ones & light". (So much for that Tarot Reader, whoever it was!)

And now, ever since I last saw her, I can't help but say to myself, when any fateful irony should come upon me, "Good Joke Moonwater - it's your turn now".

My love & blessings to all - Karen Drexler (The Drex)

2 comments:

Elana said...

well , I had a long and " heart-felt " response to your story , but now that I have lost that one............I will begin again. I too have said " great -joke grand father MANY times in the past few weeks , but I laughed out loud when I thought of you saying "great -joke moonwater" and some of us are lucky enough to be able to say "great joke mother" ~

Elana said...

I figured that now that I went through the hell of logging on!!!! (why are the basic things so damn hard ?)I might as well leave more than one little comment . As I find myself getting lost in all these great pictures,and than the hours fly by!! I am so thankfull to all of you who are taking this molment in time to think about,and love ,that amazing woman that I am lucky enough to call both my mother, friend , and many other things .....teacher ,as many of you know , she was pretty sure that she was an english teacher in a past life , and would struggle with all the errors in my writting alone! anyways! I need to just make sure that I get my basic point accross , and that is thank you all for putting out the love ....and pictures , and great stories . Each and every one of those memories is a gift . thank you ,again. I love you all ~ Elana