Music, clowning fills her 2nd journey
By Sue Mason
STAFF WRITER
In 2006, Grace Judd gave up her funny clothes and red nose. At the time, she described clowning as her first journey and retirement was her second journey. Little did she know the first would become a part of the second.
A resident at American House on Hunter in Westland, Judd's journey today includes exercising five days a week, walks when the weather's nice, dancing and even slipping on her red nose to join her friends for some clowning.
"It's a journey and life is what you make of it," said Judd. "You can sit and let life go by or you can have fun and make others happy."
At age 94, Judd is showing no sign of slowing down, especially when the music plays.
"When the music starts, my feet start," said Judd. "And I don't need a partner. I tell them to hold my cane, I need to dance."
When a fellow resident asked her to teach her the steps, she tells them she never knows what her feet will do.
Judd's love of dance goes back to parochial school where the sisters would put on a "big revue" to raise money. She was always one of the dancers. She's thankful for that opportunity. Because of them she learned the Charleston, the Irish Jig and the Highland Fling.
"Oh, I love to dance," she said.
Judd admits the transition to assisted living wasn't an easy one. She worried about the other residents liking her and was re-assured by the director who told her that she had "made a big impression" at the facility. It was what she needed to hear. Now, she jokes that they think she's the "cat's pajamas."
She's a night person and doesn't apologize if she sleeps in. After all, it was her mother who told her the best medicine is sleep.
"I've never forgotten that," she said.
And she' not forgotten her clowning. She keeps in touch with her Clowns Around Redford friends, they are her "extended family." Known for 20 years as Dilly the Clown, she still gets together with them on occasion. Last month, she was at Vicky's Homemade Ice Cream in Redford to help make a 50-foot banana split in celebration of National Clowns Week.
"They can't get rid of me, they're stuck with me," Judd said with a laugh.
Even her children have been supportive of her clowning. One daughter thought she was a great clown - again "the cat's pajamas." And they've even learned to call her Dilly. She doesn't answer to mom.
"I say I have a wonderful family and they end up saying they have a pretty wonderful mother," she said. "I must have done something right."
As for clowning, "it's sort of inside me," Judd said.
"Even though I'm retired, sometimes someone says something to me and I come back with a clown answer," she added. "I never know what's going to come out of here (her mouth)."
smason@hometownlife.com | (734) 953-2112.
(Tom Hawley | Staff Photographer)
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