Imaginings of a Dorothy in Four Frames

Friday, June 10, 2022****

Friday, June 10, 2022****

    Dorothy is one hundred years old today. She sits upright in a rigid kitchen chair with a stuffed animal, much like her beloved Toto, clasped to her lap. Reminiscent of the interior of the small Kansan house where she was raised, her small apartment is comfortably uncluttered. She is waiting for family to pick her up to celebrate her day. It has been a tough couple of years with minimal family interaction because of COVID. Today, finally, they are able to gather without worry. The family is looking to make up for lost time.

    Dorothy remembers the girl who sang of an "Over the Rainbow" life. That was long ago, many rainbows ago. Now Dorothy prepares for another "Over the Rainbow" adventure. Soon, but not today. Today's adventure is with family. Today's adventure is a gala one hundred years in the making.

    Dorothy will surprise her family with her specially made outfit for today, a blue and white patterned dress and hair braided like they found in the old picture. True, her hair is not as long or as full as in that picture, but they will remember. She also found someone on Etsy to make her special Chuck Taylors decorated with red sequins. No high heels for her. Dorothy was able to slide in her inserts so that the sparkly Chuck Taylors fit as well as her usual Velcro walking shoes. Lastly, Dorothy even found a little basket to carry instead of a purse. That will make them laugh even though all she carries are tissues and a lemon poppyseed energy bar in case her sugar goes low. No nodding off and napping on this day.

    It is another ten minutes until her family is scheduled to arrive. Should she turn the television on? Should she pick up a magazine? No, she decides, she will spend the next ten minutes just as she spent the last ten minutes, with her memories and imagination keeping her company. Dorothy no longer has to click her heels and say "There is no place like home" to go back to Oz or, for that matter, to travel to Kansas or Michigan or Minnesota. Wherever she is, she is home. Home is wherever her imagination takes her. This is no Oz magic, but, simply, the super power bestowed to the old who embrace time and quiet and line up her memories like bottles of elixir in Professor Marvel's wagon to be opened one at a time and inhaled.

    She is the All-Powerful now. There is no reason to put on a show of smoke and mirrors. Let others entertain and develop their own magic. Her frail but fantastic powers are enough for her. She wonders what she will bring with her when she goes over her next rainbow. It would be a shame, she thinks, to lose her ability to travel by imagination. However, when her body stills here, she is certain that wherever she goes next will be home too. Auntie Em and Uncle Henry will be there. So will her husband Gail. And won't it be fun to laugh again with Hunk, Hickory, and Zeke. Glinda, the Good Witch of the North, didn't tell her that you can have more than one home. Kansas is home. Oz is home. Death will be home.

    Dorothy hears her granddaughter Glinda and her two boys skipping down the hall. They will soon walk in. Dorothy likes it that Glinda has her own key and lets herself in. Though imagination allows Dorothy to travel between memories and the fantastic, sometimes it is best to have a Glinda arrange the travel. The key makes a scratching noise as it enters the lock. Dorothy rises to greet this new adventure.

****Friday, June 10, 2022 is the date of Judy Garland's hundredth birthday.