Gracie is whisked off to a country music concert. She isn’t
very knowledgeable, yet she embraces the opportunity and begins to get
excited. She enjoys most music and has a mental stereotype of wholesome,
family oriented fun, banjos and fiddles when it comes to country music. Off they go and soon the excitement of being in a crowd takes hold. The
tension builds and the concert starts and it is really loud. Hey look, there is a baby in the crowd. Sure hope she has ear plugs. It
seems like a combination of rock and country. The pyrotechnics are
dancing everywhere on stage. It is amazing nothing gets burned down.
There are also large TV screens on each side of the stage bringing close ups,
hey, wait a minute, there sure are a lot of scantily clad women on those
screens. What happened to wholesome? Gracie wonders if it is her age or
her disposition. Whatever it is, there is enough rock to get her moving and she enjoys her first county music concert.
Her days in Saint Louis continue with a trip to the Saint Louis Zoological Park. This is the home zoo for Marlin Perkins, who rose from being the reptile curator in 1928, all the way up to Director. He remained Director Emeritus until his death in 1986. Marlin Perkins was more lovable than her first animal hero, Frank Buck, collector and hunter, who populated American Zoos with exotic animals and wrote the book, “Bring ‘Em Back Alive.” She preferred Marlin because he handled the animals like friends and explained their behaviors and she could watch him on TV in Wild Kingdom. Of course, there is another animal picture for the senility spreadsheet. 
They drive back to the house and Gracie delights in hearing the
hostess refer to their home as a “miracle house” a phrase Gracie often used to describe her home. They needed another place to
live, had financially difficult circumstances and beyond their wildest dreams,
everything fell together for them to buy the house. Gracie remembers and it went like this: the divorce wasn’t
going well, in fact, it was vicious on many levels. However Gracie’s mother helped her,
and when her siblings found out they protested right on the front porch of their childhood home. Her mother said: “Gracie needs the money, and
it’s my money not yours and I will spend it how I please; Gracie is going
to keep her house for her and her children.” What Gracie didn’t know was that the ex-husband’s name
would remain on the mortgage and she was advised to get that changed. How
does a single parent, professional babysitter swing a mortgage? Deep down inside she always knew losing the house was not an option. She just
didn’t know what steps she should take to keep it. She sought advice from
a friend who knew what to do. The tall white-haired man with a gentle voice,
laughing eyes and smile to match explained the process. Gracie
complained that the mortgage companies wanted all kinds of information
including letters from her clients stating what they paid her, how often,
etc. He reminded her that, “he who has the money, makes the rules.”
Gracie put her shoulder to the wheel and gathered the paperwork. It wasn’t
looking good and so her friend offered to co-sign her mortgage if she couldn’t
get it on her own. This felt like a blow to her pride, but she and the
kids needed a place to live and remaining in the house would be to the
children’s advantage. He gently told her: “I want you to go into
the bathroom and look yourself in the mirror, smile and say, “God loves me, and
my co-signer, if needed, loves me. With God and good friends, it will work
out.” Gracie repeated this to herself for several days and then came the
miracle: notification that because of all the glowing letters from her clients,
the mortgage was hers and there was no need for a co-signer. She squealed with
delight and called her friend. To this day, she doesn’t know if her
friend did something behind the scenes. Whether he did or not, he never let on and the mortgage was hers; let
the payments begin! It all worked out, just like he said and Gracie refinanced over the
years with the new knowledge taught to her by a glorious, generous friend whom
she treasures now and for always.
It is time to get back on the road. After all, miracles can happen
anywhere. Gracie packs her car. She feels like a squirrel going to
and fro, putting everything in its place. If she forgets something, there
is no driving back for it. She is ready to depart when she sees a dead humming
bird lying beside her car. Gracie respects the American Indian Tradition
that animals can bring messages. She picks the little bird up and says a prayer
over its tiny body, then respectfully asks for a few feathers before burying it
in the side garden. “Because of their magical qualities, [hummingbird]
feathers have been used to make charms for a millennium.” According to
Indian Tradition, Hummingbird feathers open the heart and enable one to “taste
the nectar and pure bliss of life.” One should “never be coarse in front
of Hummingbird, for this is a fragile medicine may have no understanding
of worldly affairs. Beauty is the target, and Humming bird’s mission is
to spread joy or be destroyed.” Hummingbirds fill one with “paroxysms of
joy, and a renewal of the magic of living.” What a lovely omen for Gracie’s
future journey.*
*All quotes on hummingbird are taken
from Medicine Cards, The Discovery of Power Through The Ways Of Animals by
Jamie Sams and David Carson, Bear & Company, Santa Fe, New Mexico,
1951.
Copyright © 2015 Martina Sabo
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