Christopher Walken Was in Love with My Mother

My mother, Lee, died when I was less then five years old, while we were living in New York City. One of the few connections I still have to her is my friend Ginna who was my mother's best friend in high school. They were also friends with a boy by the name of Ronnie Walken, now known as Christopher.

While we were in Washington Christopher Walken was starring in A Behanding in Spokane on Broadway and Ginna generously invited me up to see it. I took one of the speedy and comfortable Chinatown buses and got off at Penn Station. I had some time to wander around Manhattan before meeting Ginna. I walked up to Central Park and on the way back I ran into our friends Sean (aka Swordfish) and Sasha from San Francisco. Amazing. I had a glass of wine with them and then met Ginna for dinner at a wonderful Broadway place famous for its burgers and people watching.

The play was panned by the New Yorker but I rather enjoyed it. The acting was great and Christopher Walken was hysterical. After the show we were allowed back stage and Christopher stopped and talked with us for a few minutes. His mannerisms were what you would expect but toned down. His eyes, however, had none of the creepy chill you see in the movies. They were surprisingly kind with a hint of impish humor.

I asked him about my mother and he told me that she was the smartest girl in the school and that she was very beautiful. "I really liked her," he said, winking. It was a strange moment but nice and we both laughed. It was good to know that she is still there in this familiar stranger's head. For a moment I could see her the way he had seen her 50 years ago.



I stayed with Ginna, her husband Frank, and their friendly poodle on the Upper East Side. The next day I headed back to Washington but I had a little more time to take pictures and to soak up New York in all its chaotic beauty. My family left New York about a year after my mother died but I still feel it in me. There is no other place in the world like it, though you can see pieces of the whole world in it.