Melody Munson

The first neighbor I met in my Community on Thrush was Melody Munson.  She lived in the house next door with her friend Stuart.  She knocked on the door and then walked right in.  Sat on the couch and smoked her cigarette letting the ash falling on the floor.

She was so enthusiastic, asking me if I was going to stay for a long time?  I said I was staying and she said, "Goodie!" and then added, "Because the other neighbors had to leave because they were broken in to."

So that was my first meeting, of many many more beloved memories of Melody.

Some of my favorite memories were of her and her friend Stuart.  Stuart was schizophrenic and smoked 5 packs of cigars a day.  He didn't bathe and he would mumble to himself.  My husband was getting rid of a pair of winter hunting overalls.  Made for intensely cold weather.  Stuart wore those bibs for two years straight.  I remember Ed telling him that they were for winter weather when he saw him wearing them in July, and Stuart's response was, "They are all season."  

When I started the original Art Garage, Melody was there.  One of our first activities was paper making, and as I was setting up and preparing the materials Melody came over.  I let her make a practice sheet of paper, and it didn't come out quite right, so I started watching a youtube video on papermaking.  Melody took one look at the phone, and asked if I had made a video of her making paper.  I explained I was watching the video to learn, and she replied, "Oh, that's me making paper".  When Melody decided something was true, that was the end of the story.  I usually went along, since none of her Melodisms would hurt anyone.

I did have to intervene a couple times.  Once when she went to court, and was insistent on the fact that she hadn't done anything wrong, although the street camera had a video of her pulling another woman's hair.  The story is that this woman had sold Melody her Link, and Melody was mad because it didn't actually have any money on it. It didn't register that buying someone's Link is illegal.  All she knew was that it wasn't fair to have been lied to.  Melody had a fierce sense of Justice and Fairness, even if it was viewed through her special lens.

I see Melody as one of the Innocent ones. It doesn't mean she always did right, or was loving.  But she was always authentic.  God was definitely looking out for Melody.  It is so interesting that we have moved to Pekin, and one of the last major hurdles to leaving has been Melody.  I know that she is in Heaven singing with the Miam Kat Band.