*On Death & Disneyland

[Photo credit: Donn Shy (Mum) | Melancholic visit to Disneyland with 
one rebellious little sister and one brilliantly cooperative brother.]

[The night we said our final goodbyes] We looped her favorite home video she had proudly composed and edited which consisted of photographs and video footage from Mother’s Day 2007 when I had taken her, my brother Tony, and sister Kelli to Disneyland. The DVD was a humorous contradiction, as on that day I somehow had the off-kilter, yet self-proclaimed brilliant idea for the entire group to only take melancholically posed photos, only in front of the rides that were closed for refurbishment, or in front of the “Cast Members Only” signs. Basically anything we had no access to, anything that had the potential to create a tinge of disappointment, we would use as a backdrop for Mum’s professional photographic lens.

Sullen, dejected, sad, fixating on the uninspired tiny pebbles on the ground, and sometimes seemingly screaming in anguish, the result was an incredibly humorous video/slide-show with a cheery theme song. This memory became a great one Mum would cherish so much, she’d later confess to popping it into her DVD player and watching it any time she felt down, which sadly happened to be more often than not.

Excerpt from chapter one | wild horses | Everything’s Hunky Dory: A Memoir