THE WAVE
2月
20日
GET A LIFE!YOU LEARN THE MOST...
WHEN THINGS ARE DOWN!
EXACTLY!
We decided it would be fine as Sam and I had always been open to persons who believe they can communicate with both the living and the dead to alleviate unrest, unsettled issues, and to deliver gifts to the spirits.
The night before Sam passed, 6’2” Shaman Bob showed up. First, he sat with us in the living room and told us about his semi-pro basketball years before his religious studies in the Far East. Then he went into the room where Sam was. After 10 or 20 minutes, Bob came back out to the living room saying, “I don’t know about all of you, but Sam is fine. What is it about a picture of a wave that I see Sam is thinking?”
Our daughter, Kelly, answered, “The last project Sam was planning was a National Geographic Tsunami story that he was asked to illustrate and he copied the Hokusai wave with his own variation as a cover picture. There is a framed picture of the original Hokusai Wave hanging in the bathroom. I would show it to you, but my girls are in there, taking a bath.”
Shaman Bob said, “That’s okay.” Then after more light hearted conversation, he left without seeing the picture.
The next morning Sam passed as his10-yr-old granddaughter, came into our room and sang ONCE UPON A DECEMBER at the bedside.
Dancing bears, painted wings
Things I almost remember
And a song someone sings
Once upon a December
As we thought about Shaman Bob’s words, we kept looking at the wave picture along with all of the rest of Sam’s witty sayings and drawings covering the walls of our bathroom. We finally noticed the little paper cut-out figure of “Healthy Cell”, which Sam created as a business mascot, was no longer surfing under the crest of the Hokusai wave. Sam had cut out and attached the paper figure to the glass with scotch-tape years ago. The little rolled up piece of tape was still on the glass, but the cartoon character wasn’t there. We looked all over the bathroom floor because we assumed it had fallen off.
Between letting relatives and friends know about Sam, midst New Years activities, there were many phone calls. New Years morning Sam’s brother Andy and wife Beryl were having coffee at Starbucks in Magnolia district. A picture of the Hokusai Wave showed up on their cell phone impromptu.
We all have thoughts about what this might mean??
Three years later, we still have not found the paper cutout “Healthy Cell” character. The Healthy Cell’s word balloon with Sam’s hand-printed words, “GET A LIFE” is still scotched taped to the picture.
ps. "Healthy Cell" is the Goto-Health mascot up in the upper right corner of this page.
