FREE AS A BIRD
From the rented house in Altadena I had to drive 20 miles every day to my friend Anne Grindley’s ranch in Mission Hills to take care of my horses Captain and Cherie. In lieu of paying board I took care of her three Arabians as well. I have always been an early riser because horses need to be taken care of on a regular schedule. They get their hay and stalls cleaned at 6 AM and again at 6 PM. I was extremely depressed about my abandonment situation but started to paint again which always puts me in a more positive meditative state: letting go and being in the zone…My horse trainer Roxanne Tallman worked at the newly remodeled Middle Ranch in Lake View Terrace and I got commissioned to paint a mural in the clubhouse.
Another client in Pasadena commissioned me to paint her amazing pool so I was glad to have enough paid work to do. The images appear out of nowhere, inspired by the Divine Cosmic Mother and I keep going without stopping until I fall exhausted in bed at night.
Driving my Mercury Zephyr to Mission Hills for several months, I passed by Melvia Dunham’s cottage sitting on an acre of horse property, where Guard and I used to live in the 80’s and adjacent to the ranch where my horses were boarded. The place did not look well taken of and I thought “if I could only live there again”. On impulse one day I looked up Melvia’s phone number and called. A deep resonant man’s voice answered and when I asked for Melvia he said he was her son Don but that his mother had Alzheimer’s disease and could not come to the phone. I remembered Melvia telling me about “her son the lawyer”, so I explained who I was and our history and that I hoped I could rent the place again. He replied it was remarkable that I called since he was in the process of evicting the current tenants and to call back in a few weeks. Two weeks later Don told me I could have the place and I was deliriously happy to hear that!
We made an appointment to meet at the cottage and I expected a guy in a three-piece suit to show up. I waited on the front porch; he was late, but finally I heard a loud rumbling sound as a white souped-up Firebird entered the driveway and a very tall handsome guy with long dark hair dressed in a white open shirt and jeans jumped out…that took me by surprise! This was the conservative Melvia’s son??? We smiled at each other and shook hands, then went in the house to sign the lease and check each other out. I was happy to see the pretty trumpet vines and orchids were still blooming in the garden where Denzel could romp about. Some repairs had to be made but I moved in right away and I walked the horses from Anne’s ranch around the corner to their old digs. Both horses seemed to remember they had lived there before and were quite happy to return.
A few weeks later Don was having a Halloween party and invited me to his “animal house” in the West Valley where he lived with several roommates. I was reluctant to go by myself, always bashful in social circumstances, so I asked my girlfriend Magalis to join me. She said yes, of course, always up for a party. We dressed up as gypsies, drove to the west end of the valley and a party it was…We could hear loud Rock & Roll music as we approached the house. The living room was set up with a drumkit, microphones and amps and they were going at it with gusto. It turned out that Don is a great guitar player and songwriter and his roommates and friends were musicians also. Don played a Gibson SG. Besides his own tunes he favored Van Halen, the Cars and other 80’s bands. Howard, James and Mitch hauled ass and John Taylor on keyboards did a great tribute to the Doors’ Jim Morrison. The beat went on and on…Magalis and I had a blast! As we were leaving hours later Don came over and to my surprise kissed me on the lips…something was happening here!
The following weekend Don asked me out on a date which happened to be my 50th birthday. We drove the Firebird to the Rainbow club in Hollywood where we met with his friend Dennis and his girlfriend Melanie. The four of us had a great time eating pizza and listening to the band. Thereafter we started to date regularly, sometimes staying at his place and sometimes at mine. During the weekends we went shopping for his mother Melvia and visit with her. She had a live-in caretaker at her house in Granada Hills and the Alzheimer’s was already so far advanced she didn’t recognize her own son any longer.
On January 17, 1994, the Northridge 6.7 magnitude earthquake hit at 4:30 in the morning. The little house shook and swayed but nothing broke. I was worried about Melvia and since Don’s place was far away in the West valley, I rushed to nearby Granada Hills to see if she was alright. Don showed up after encountering difficulties on the way with big fires in his path from broken gas lines. Later we discovered one outer wall of the house had separated and needed to be repaired. We grew closer as time went by and fell madly in love when I thought I never would be able to again!
Because Don’s rented house had leaky roof problems sustained during the earthquake he moved out of there to live with me in his grandmother’s house. After Melvia fell down the stairs in the two-story 4-bedroom house Don grew up in, breaking her hip and when we discovered that the caregiver’s whole family had moved in, as her conservator, Don decided to take Melvia and her new care giver to grandma’s house while we moved to the big house where he also could maintain his law office and have a music studio. One of the bedrooms had northern light and became my studio and I went to work right away. I could check in on Melvia’s situation every day while taking care of my two old horses still living in Mission Hills only two miles away. A happy new chapter in my life had started!
To be continued…