Moon River Remembrance

My eyes filled with tears as I drove home from work tonight. I was listening to an NPR story about the centennial anniversary of the birth of the great lyricist, Johnny Mercer, who wrote the words to such songs as "That Old Black Magic" and "I Remember You." But it was the Henry Mancini song that Johnny wrote the lyrics for that brought me to that sentimental moment in the car. In 1961 as Mercer's career was being slowed by the rise of rock and roll, Mancini asked Mercer to write lyrics for what became the beautiful song, "Moon River." And "Moon River" took me back to the Lot, back to Laury's very own Moon River that I watched flow by my window every morning and every night of that wonderful month in Cadrieu. Light danced and sparkled on that river. The cliffs of the causse and the colorful trees and bushes of autumn were reflected in it. On my first night at the Chatette, I watched a full moon rise over the river. Laury pointed out the moon's aura...light in the shape of a cross that framed it. She said that was special to moonrise over the river Lot; that she'd never seen that cross anywhere else. When I got home a month later, I checked it out on my Iowa full moon, and she's right...no cross here, only a soft halo. Remembering the Moon River of the Lot, remembering Laury playing the Mancini/Mercer melody on her lovely baby grand piano late at night while I sat curled up in bed, reading and watching the light of the full moon streaming through my dormer window...no wonder my soft, silly, sentimental heart overflowed!