One
of our favorite neighbors here was Judy. We met her when we bought the
house in 2015 and had the most delightful conversations whenever our
paths crossed, which was often. She loved to walk as much as we do, and
we shared stories of our lives in those few minutes we stood on the
street yakking away.
One day I told Judy that whenever
we see her I do the Cary Grant line, "Judy Judy Judy." She told us that
so many people have told her the same thing over the years. "Judy Judy
Judy," she said was never uttered by Cary Grant. We were so surprised.
Seriously, how could such an old "meme" that had lasted forever not be
true?
So, when we got home from our walk I checked it
out. Well, what a crazy surprise that turned out to be. Cary Grant never
did say "Judy Judy Judy." I found this explanation of how it got
started:
In several subsequent interviews with Grant, he expressed his bemusement
over the phrase. In the 1980s, he said he thought "it started with a
celebrity impersonator by the name of Larry Storch. He apparently was
appearing in a nightclub and doing me when Judy Garland walked in. And,
that's how he greeted her." Now, this phrase is a beloved movie line
that was never spoken in a movie.
Of course the next time we ran into Judy I had to tell her what a surprise it was to learn the truth after all these years.
Judy
loved to walk in the blustery gray weather we have here. She had lived
here all of her life, and in fact was living on the same property her
parents had when she was a child. She didn't like it warm and sunny and
preferred cool days.
We once passed Judy while she
was out walking and we were driving by in our car. We waved at each
other, grinning like little kids. The next time we saw her, she said, "I
saw you cheating." I asked her what she meant. She laughed and moved
her hands like they were on a steering wheel. We laughed and laughed.
We
gave her homegrown kale, zucchini and yellow squash; she gave us a fake wasp nest to hang
outside to help get rid of the real wasps that had a built a home in
between the outer and inner wall of our house. She said it would scare
them to think there was another wasp nest around. It didn't work, but it
was worth a try.
The last time we saw Judy, just the other day, she was out
with another neighbor fixing some bit of fencing at the edge of her
property. We had a funny chat as always.
And yes that
was the last time we would ever see Judy. We learned from another
neighbor on Saturday that Judy died suddenly after suffering a heart
attack on Thanksgiving day. We were blown away by the news. I thought
about the weather that day. It was utterly gray and blustery, rainy and
windy. Judy would have loved it. Perhaps it was the perfect day to make
her sudden exit.
You just never know the last time you see someone it might really be the very last time. We bid you farewell, Judy Judy Judy.
PS-- I turned comments off.