She's So Silly

Consolation Prize

Today is odd numbered

(S)he is speaking

S(he) is waving

Tomorrow is even numbered

(S)he is waving

S(he) is speaking

(T)hey remember March 3, 1969 like yesterday’s stump speech stumblings

that’s when it started

a Chagall calendar in their tiny garage tracked it all

S(he) was red and speaking

(S)he was blue and waving

Today

The calendar is projected on a luminescent screen

W(he) refresh our page and all breathe

(S)he will be waving

S(he) will be speaking

What (t)he(y) don’t reveal

is this highly ritualized red and blue prize isn’t

t(he) one they originally eyed

It is so far from their original intent

S(he) wanted nothing more than a hug from a southern blue eyed boy

(S)he wanted nothing more than respect from a tweeded yankee girl

This historical moment is their consolation prize

Folk Song Redux

Much The Worse For You

Studied sanitaria with Charro.

Then headed west to sash shay liars lives around.

 I corralled them in their habitat of

suburban pomp and circumstance.

Slouched on bleachers,

acrylic nails yelling.

Their cover is exchanging brag books filled with nothing.

Whispering so everyone can hear,

a fully furnished McMansion one of them is repping,

is selected for a cozy night of dearly beloved swapping.

Their sweaty teen boys on parquet play a final press 

while I slip in:

a shred of decency between two grains of repent.

Caught carousing counter clockwise on Jumbo Tron

the fibbers are transfixed

upon a mimeographed replay

dioramas of what their fate could be.

The first curtain rises revealing plan A –

Three sheets screaming in the wind,

pinned to a line with their biggest fears.

Diamond vision splays plan B -

a sexy blueberry pie casts a horrid stench –

loneliness tinged with sullen bitterness.

The end game buzzer casts the spell away

and three sad little girls have finally found their way.

Damp Earth

“It is interesting to contemplate a tangled bank, clothed with many plants of many kinds, with birds singing on the bushes, with various insects flitting about, and with worms crawling through the damp earth, and to reflect that these elaborately constructed forms, so different from each other, and dependent upon each other in so complex a manner, have all been produced by laws acting around us. These laws, taken in the largest sense, being Growth with reproduction; Inheritance which is almost implied by reproduction; Variability from the indirect and direct action of the conditions of life, and from use and disuse; a Ratio of Increase so high as to lead to a Struggle for Life, and as a consequence to Natural Selection, entailing Divergence of Character and the Extinction of less improved forms. Thus, from the war of nature, from famine and death, the most exalted object which we are capable of conceiving, namely, the production of the higher animals, directly follows. There is grandeur in this view of life, with its several powers, having been originally breathed by the Creator into a few forms or into one; and that, whilst this planet has gone circling on according to the fixed law of gravity, from so simple a beginning endless forms most beautiful and most wonderful have been, and are being evolved.” - Charles Darwin

rilke rocks

I want to be with those who know secret things or else alone.
Rainer Maria Rilke

Obituary

Obituaries/Funeral Announcements

Molly Barrett Campbell Space. 1906-1973, Hollywood

The opportunity to create one last seemingly impossible quilt in her 300 square foot bedroom overlooking Beachwood Canyon was too good for Molly Barrett to pass up, especially knowing it would probably be the last time she could mentor her granddaughter Renatta who at the age of seven was able to grasp basic patch and stitch styles and techniques. 

The former nurse and active war protestor had been spending the winter years of her life sequestered in a tree house like room working complex jigsaw puzzles, smoking Lucky Strikes, calling talk radio shows and, on Friday’s via taxi picking her granddaughter up from school to have a bowl of cheddar cheese soup in the basement diner of the Broadway Department Store located at the corner of Hollywood and Vine. 

In April of 1973 as pre-dawn preparations for the Watergate hearings consumed the American mind, members of the Science of Mind Church, which Molly attended for over seventeen years, say she became increasingly agitated and saddened with the United States Government. So, in May, without any warning Molly kept her granddaughter Renatta home from school to watch the Watergate hearings. In addition to watching the hearings, Molly delivered an in depth history of the development and evolution of the U.S. constitution. It was, friends said, a time for Molly to impart her passion and knowledge of U.S. civics to her granddaughter while creating a quilt together. However, the ensuing Watergate drama was so consuming the fabric scraps, needles, and bunting were put aside after the first two days of hearings.

“She was at that point in her life where she was trying to figure out without anyone’s support how to spend as much time with her granddaughter. Time where she could teach her to question authority and pass down her family’s quilting traditions,” said Myrna Rafijah friend and neighbor.  “Even though her health was failing she had a plan and was determined to carry it out.” Shortly after the Watergate hearings in mid-May Molly was no longer able to breathe without assistance form an oxygen machine and therefore was essentially bed-ridden from that time on.

December 10, 1973 brought record-setting scorching temperatures to Southern California as well as warm Santa Ana winds. This was Molly’s 35^th day of residency at Hollywood Presbyterian’s Hospice located on Vermont Avenue in Hollywood, California. As was the case most days, Renatta visited with her grandmother for a few hours during the late afternoon. The darkened room with a single bed, polyester day-glow floral drapes and, marigold yellow walls held Molly’s essential belongings with just enough room for a visitor’s chair and table on wheels. Jigsaw puzzles, books, and, quilting supplies lived on the table’s brown and black laminate surface most hours of the day except for when untouched plattered meals were delivered at 7:13am, 11:43am and, 4:45pm. In her last months, Molly preferred Nabisco Vanilla Wafers and Stouffers Chipped Beef delivered by her husband of forty years Clyde Richard Space, actor and father of Molly’s surviving daughters Sophia Rose, mother of granddaughter Renatta Dukaee and Sally Grace both residents of Los Angeles, CA. 

Molly sitting as far over to the left side of the bed at a forty five degree angle wore a snap closure house dress with a roosterfish print found by Molly’s husband on a recent fishing trip off the coast of Baja, Mexico. Inspired by the plentiful amount of roosterfish he caught, its great flavor, and, his wife’s wardrobe staple snap front house coats,  Clyde purchased several roosterfish print house coats in a small open air market located in Muleje, Baja, Mexico. Renatta was in her usual position wedged between Molly and the cold metal bars protecting them both from falling onto the cold asbestos ridden beige and  green tiled floor.

“Molly was ingenious. She had discovered a way that she and her granddaughter could simultaneously sew while in bed. Everyday they worked together using scrap fabric from clothing Molly had made for Renatta since she was an infant. It was really coming together. On December 10^th, Renatta unaware of her grandma’s passing was happily sewing the last few backstitches when I popped in to check on Molly. Molly died doing what she loved best with someone she loved very much at her side”, said Flo McGwynn, Hospice Nurse Supervisor.

The next day, Molly’s husband, Clyde Space, 65, was driving from the Ojai, California set of ‘The Folks Of Red Wolf’ a horror film featuring him as a practicing cannibal and proprietor of a quaint bed and breakfast when he had to stop his 1968 Plymouth station wagon due to uncontrollable crying. “I was moved to tears because I realized how little love Molly had in her life. We had fallen out of love so many years ago and as for her two children they found her  difficult to get close to. Thankfully she had Renatta for the last few years of her life”, Space recalled.

Molly is also survived by her cousin Richard Potter known for his participation in the Mafia style shooting of Mason Giamba at Sunset Boulevard’s Whiskey A-Go-Go in 1963. Molly is preceased by her long time friend George Reeves who played television’s Superman during the 1950’s.

A jigsaw puzzle and political talk show enthusiast, Molly joined the Science of Mind church in 1967, attending meetings and lectures at the Beachwood Canyon church. She had no family that went with her to church, and her husband and daughters didn’t understand her desire to join the church.

“ She kind of had to explain to us, but she never regretted the decision,” her daughter Sophia said. “She loved it from the beginning. She was very involved with the conscientious objector movement - helping young men who had been drafted to serve in Vietnam and all.”

Before joining the church she had tirelessly worked to save her son-in-law from having to serve in Vietnam. William Sandista eventually did serve as a Medical Police officer. “Molly’s dedication to peace is with me everyday”, says Sandista. “I joined the Quaker Church after returning from Vietnam in order to do peace works in Molly’s name.”

And although Molly was chronically ill for nearly thirty years of her life, she never complained in her frequent letters to her sisters and brothers. Instead, she was focused on interpreting some of the United States most historic political events – Pearl Harbor, McCarthy hearings, Bay Of Pigs, Martin Luther King’s work, and, the deaths of John and Bobby Kennedy. As a frequent caller to radio talk show host’s Michael Jackson’s program, Molly was always well prepared with facts and follow-up questions.

Neighbors and fellow church members remember Molly as never without a Lucky Strike cigarette hanging from her lips, cantankerous and opinionated. “She was perpetually perplexed by humans and muttered a lot. Why can’t we all just get along she would say over and over”, remembers Gigi Swain, church patron. “She wanted good and worked for good which made up for her surly attitude.”

Raised in Cherry Hill, New Jersey by world-renowned Springer Spaniel breeders, Molly excelled in school and was accepted to Yale. However, her family encouraged her to stay local and attend New Brunswick, New Jersey’s Rutgers University where she soon met Clyde her husband. “Molly wanted to travel the world and when Paramount Pictures signed me Molly saw this as a great way to get out of New Jersey.” Settled in Los Angeles, Molly had several miscarriages before successfully giving birth two daughters in the early 1940’s. Molly quickly became a recluse and fell ill spending her days at various doctor’s offices. “Molly was a great friend to me.”, says Dr. Brukner, General Internist. “I couldn’t do much for her but she certainly helped me throughout the years.”

Before Molly entered the hospice she talked to a few close friends and Clyde about what to do if she died. Being able to follow her friend’s last wishes by embroidering ‘To Renatta, Merry Christmas. Love, Grandma Molly. 1973’ on the last quilt she created was comforting to close friend Gigi. “Molly gave even after her passing, the quilt was a beautiful gift that hopefully Renatta will treasure for years to come.”