First, thanks so much to everyone who came out on Sunday to the west coast memorial for Mom, and especially to Alison Tassie for organizing and hosting. I'd never been to the Exit Theatre before but as soon as I walked in I thought, "oh yeah. this is her."
It was great to meet new faces and hear virtual strangers (among some very familiar faces) talk so poignantly about Mom and how much she impacted their lives. Her reach was great - we knew this. But Jenn and I were talking today, and we realized it's actually comforting to know that we're not the only ones walking around right now, wondering how the world is still in fact spinning.
So, among the guests on Sunday was a family that we have known for a very long time. The Arntsons lived down the street from us on Harmony Place for many years, and when we moved in Lenore (the mama) and our Mom became fast friends. They maintained their close friendship through many life changes, and before Mom moved to New York she asked Lenore & Dick to keep some of her boxes at their house in Morro Bay, near San Luis Obispo. They not only drove up to the memorial on Sunday (along with their daughter Shawna and her husband Don) but also brought six of Mom's boxes with them, to give to us.
Jennifer and I spent most of the day and night yesterday going through everything. We missed having Clancy here for that, especially since we ran across tons of our writings, artwork, photos, etc. that of course Mom kept for all these years. But we're saving stuff for him! Even more interesting than all of our stuff was the huge pile of letters we found. Mom was really close to her Grandma Ward (the original one!) and wrote her many many MANY letters over the years. When her Grandma Ward passed away, Mom apparently retrieved all of those letters from G'ma Ward's house and has kept them with her ever since. It was pretty great stuff and really made us feel more connected to her in a powerful way. She wrote letters from Pasadena, from Hollywood, from New York in the '60s, from Newport in the '50s, and it seemed like she felt a freedom to really be herself in those letters, no matter what. Pretty great.
So now we have lots more pictures of Mom, but having so much of her writing in our grubby little hands is just a gift we never anticipated. Don't get me wrong though - I love pictures! Attached is a picture of a picture - we're guessing it's from 1959 or 1960 and we love it! Dig the fish dress.
Also, for those who haven't yet heard, the official occupation listed on the Death Certificate: poet.
8 comments:
Is the world still spinning?
I think its axis has been inexorably tilted.
uncovered stuff . . .
The day after nyc wake I, I put on a suit jacket I hadn't worn in a while. I felt a bulge and found in the pocket a copy of Frank O'Hara's Lunch Poems Janet had given me in August '06, inscribed with the characteristic JW calligraphy. ... folded-up, stuck into the pages was a JW original. A liminal, timeless poem she had typed up that night to give to me. The words are immediate and reach out and touch me as if for the first time.
Man, she's good!
Janet Ward, poet.
of course!
Damn she's generous! Still giving. Giving again.
-df
What a mothers day! That photo! The letters. The fact that you were able to be reminded of how much she loved you through the letters and pictures from the three of you! I was thinking about you on Sunday and I know she was too.
Love,
Brian
New York's spin is off kilter, I find.
Though I'm so sorry we missed her by a mere week...it is poetic justice that I last saw Janet onstage in September, in the fall--and all that that implies shall never leave me.
Poet. Fish dress...part of a great picture.
Love,
WLB
Yep, that last line about says it all.
Went Biddy Early's for dinner and then to hear Alan playing with Todd Sickafoose on Tuesday night -
great set, but it wasn't quite the same without havin' your mom there to share it.
Scary to think how many boxes of stuff are sitting in storage all over the world, just waiting. Glad yours turned out to be such a gift. See ya on the 20th.
Oh my God I love that picture with her Dad looking at her from the background. That's her dad isn't it. What a suprise to receive her letters. I have many letters from Janet and I have kept many of them and loved them. So glad the memorial was great. The little film is coming together. She really did impact so many.
I did an interview with Janet several years ago for a show called JIGSAW NATION about being American.
I think some of it is still used in the show which has toured the country.
Here's the full transcript.
Grand Central
By Janet Ward as told to M. Walsh
3.21.04
I think of being American as being part of my youth, really more than anything. It’s a kid thing. Growing up in post-war America – it was just happy, happy to be in America. You did the Pledge of Allegiance and sang the Star Spangled Banner and really the worst thing that you could do is like let the flag touch the ground or, really, well that you’d speak against your country – that you’d be treasonous.
Of course now I think that’s fascist but then, well, the pride….
I grew up in a small town on the coast of Oregon with no black people. Only later did I see what things were. But back then, I remember when Little Rock happened and my dad called me into the TV room and saying, look at this Janet, look at this. This is history being made and I said why can’t they just love each other. But neither of us had any experience… He drove a laundry truck. His health was too poor to fight in WWII so he and my mother moved to Portland from Tilamook to work in the shipyards to contribute to the war effort. He was a poet and a very gentle, genial happy man – uneducated but intelligent. He loved the United States, but then his parents were both immigrants and the US was a big promise and I think they passed that on to him.
A lot of our patriotism came from school, too – our teachers. I was editor of the year book, president of girls league and part of theatre…. I loved our team, the Newport Cubs and we went to state when I was a junior in HS. Yeah, in Bandon. We were delirious – it was us against Milton-Freewater and they killed us. They absolutely killed us. But at football games we couldn’t wait to sing the Star Spangled Banner….
Kennedy was a turning point for me because here was a man who seemed so accessible and I mean, I worked for him and I was so naïve, I even invited them, him, Jack Kennedy and Jackie to my high school graduation because I thought they wanted to hear me speak…. But before that we had old man Eisenhower.
I saw Kennedy drive by in his car once. It was on 5th avenue, probably between – at, in the 50s: It was after work and I was walking home: there weren’t police and barricades, there was an escort with flags and stuff but it wasn’t like now at all – he was here for a meeting and in those days they didn’t have tinted windows and if I could’ve I would’ve saluted. It was like that here. Like when I’d
I was in NY when he was shot and I worked for a law firm, $90 a week, – the head of which innovated the field of aviation negligence so there could be wrongful death actions… anyway, Stuart M. Speiser, he was 6 4, softspoken, strong and he came out of his office with tears in his eyes the day it happened. And though I didn’t know, I knew whatever happened, nothing would ever be the same again. And it wasn’t.
Now when he got shot, a lot of people didn’t have TV sets so I went to Grand Central and they set up these big screens so you could watch the funeral – it was like when 9-11 happened except we were all together. And that, of course, made it totally different than how it is now.
I think being American has two prongs. One is personal. The other is when you get to pull back and you see how it’s viewed in terms of the world… when Clinton got impeached I thought it was ironic because after so many years of Make Love Not War, we’re impeaching him… Impeaching him, well, you know…
thanks so much malachy!
My pleasure.
Janet was an amazing woman and I felt so so lucky to have her in my life - which she always will be, wherever I go.
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