Dream Weaver

Rita's mom wasn't just a weaver, she was woven together for a specific purpose.

---

Sunny Haywith is a woman of many names and talents. Born Evelyn, Rita's mother briefly went by "Mystic Harmony" before adopting Sunrise (Sunny) in 1969. But no matter which name she went by, all three have something to share about her character and disposition exhibited in Signed, Sealed, Delivered: Home Again. More importantly, each name contained a component required for Sunny to perform the critical role she played in the film.

More Than A Name

It's unusual to learn so much about a person in such a short time, but within minutes of meeting Sunny, we are actually introduced to the very complex nature of her identity through her various names. Each Sunny, Mystic Harmony and Evelyn contain distinct, but ultimately interconnected, layers of her very being. As we work through the remainder of this post, we'll refer to Rita's mother as Evelyn, not only because it's her birth name, but because it's the foundation upon which the remainder of her character is built.

​Evelyn
Her given name, Evelyn, encompasses her very essence, and reflects the very essence of our existence as human beings at the same time. Evelyn means "Life," "giver of life," or "wished for." The essence of life is about making connections---to others, to our environment, to ourselves, and, most importantly, to God. Connection is life-giving, and because of this, it's absolutely "wished for"---a core desire we all share.

In Signed, Sealed, Delivered: Home Again, Evelyn's primary function is creating these life-giving connections. Through Evelyn, we get a live illustration of this concept through her actions and dialogue, the nature and manifestation of which are embedded in, and revealed through, the next name she chose for herself, Mystic Harmony.

Mystic Harmony
Evelyn may have only embraced the name for a short time between '67 and '69, but "Mystic Harmony" is actually a very precise commentary on both her consciousness, and how it was made manifest in her life.

"Mystic" as a noun is defined as "a person who claims to attain, or believes in the possibility of attaining, insight into mysteries transcending ordinary human knowledge," or, as an adjective, is something "having magical properties." While Evelyn doesn't claim to possess such a consciousness, she lives out of a place that implies "insight into mysteries transcending ordinary human knowledge" with seemingly "magical" results.

For example, sitting at the bar with Ramon discussing the Area 51 drink, he admitted to being out of goat's milk, offering almond milk instead. Evelyn responded, "Goats, almonds---they're all God's Children, right?" In one line she associated plants and animals not only as somehow interchangeably linked, but also the same if only because they're both "God's Children." Clearly this is a revelation that transcends normal human thought processes. At the same time, Evelyn wove plants and animals into the same narrative---and an apparently delicious cocktail.

The word "Harmony" includes in its definition, "an interweaving of different accounts into a single narrative." Suddenly her declaration, "I weave---I'm a weaver," takes on an entirely new significance. Evelyn proceeded to demonstrate this undeniable gift for weaving in several contexts.

Beyond plants and animals, perhaps the first and earliest instance occurred when she told Norman he "remind[ed] [her] of a small woodland creature." She correlated humanity and nature as sharing similarities, which, interestingly, found further expression later on when Norman used owls to create a new narrative in his proposal---but we'll save that for another discussion. Twice more in Home Again, Evelyn applied her gift to weave human narratives together specifically.

Just after revealing her gift for weaving, Joe's realization that he and Bill had both been front row at the same Hendrix concert was, as Evelyn declared, enough to make Joe "practically family," despite having only been introduced a few minutes prior. Simply the fact that Joe and Bill had previously shared time and space together created a single narrative of which they were both a part, a thread the qualified them to be "practically family." But if sharing the front row at a concert made Joe "practically family," it makes you wonder what being engaged to Rita meant for Norman.

In perhaps her most important narrative merger, Evelyn constructed a powerful thread to tie Bill and Norman together. Priming Norman with a discussion about how they met, and the challenges she and Bill encountered over the course of their relationship, Evelyn created a bond between herself and Norman. In doing so, she allowed Norman to not only get to know her a little better, but Bill, too. It allowed her next comment to really sink in:

"He's a good man, Norman...he's just a sad dad right now...He used to be her hero---now she has two."

Evelyn called Norman to empathize with Bill to some extent, while also weaving Norman into Bill's story and vice versa. There used to be only one hero in the story---Bill. Now, both Bill and Norman occupy the same role of "hero" at the same time. What's interesting, however, is that Evelyn didn't tell Norman how to navigate the overlapping roles, only alerted Norman to the fact the "conflict" existed. She left it to Norman to do the rest. Simultaneously, Evelyn outlined Rita's concurrent struggle to reconcile the "hero overlap" between the two men that meant most to her. At this juncture, Norman, Bill and Rita's stories intersected. And it was from this juncture that Bill, Norman, Rita and Evelyn's collective story had to move forward.  

Nearly a blip in the evolution of her identity, Mystic Harmony encompassed Evelyn's beliefs, as well as the manner in which she chose to live them out. Her expanded consciousness embraced plants, animals and people alike as "all God's Children," which she practiced in Home Again by creating narratives which tied them all together to tell one story, whether in a cocktail or to blend a family. And it's this philosophy, perhaps, which allowed Evelyn to fully embody her most current name.

Sunny
Evelyn's most current name, Sunny, is just as dynamic as the other names with which she is associated.

Sunny is actually the only name for which we have an origin story. A rather sweet provenance, it comes from Bill's comment that "The only sun we're going to see today is the sun in your eyes," uttered after days of rain in the summer of '69 at Woodstock. It was a moment apparently so transformative for Evelyn that she "became Sunrise."

Interestingly, a sunrise signals a new day and a new beginning. In the context of Home Again, it's a symbolic representation of the new horizon upon which her family was about to embark with the addition of Norman and the marriage of her only daughter. In this way, it makes sense Sunny was the name with which Evelyn was primarily associated in the film.

Sunny also perfectly described Evelyn's generally cheery, positive disposition, regardless of circumstances. Despite blended glasses, Evelyn still had joy as she tried to get to know Norman and acted as the "muse" for Bill and Joe as they cleaned out the annex.

It's hard to imagine how Evelyn could maintain her "sunny" countenance amidst Bill, Norman and Rita's struggles with larger issues of identity and connection. But I'd like to posit that Evelyn achieved it because her primary objective was, as her name requires, life, and creating life-giving connections. To make these connections required an expanded consciousness that inherently possessed the power to transcend normal ways of thinking and perceiving. We know Evelyn possessed this power because of the fluidity with which she created associations between plants, animals and humans throughout the course of Home Again, classifying them as "all God's Children." It's an identity we can assume she claimed also for herself. Her identity properly and deeply rooted, Evelyn was able to remain at peace in the midst of Bill, Norman and Rita's turmoil. Understanding their perspectives, while maintaining her own, was critical. Doing so allowed Evelyn to exercise the patience required to wait for, as well as the clarity to perceive, the right threads with which she could weave Bill, Norman and Rita's narratives together when the time was right. By weaving the trio together, Evelyn facilitated connections that ultimately allowed all three to find resolution in and through each other. This, of course, was Evelyn's sole objective, and the first page of a new story in which all four would take part moving forward. 

On the surface, Evelyn Haywith appears a sweet, quirky future mother-in-law. While that's true, it only describes a small fraction of her true overall depth and function in Signed, Sealed, Delivered: Home Again. Known as Evelyn, Mystic Harmony and Sunny throughout the course of her life, each name contained a thread of her essence, which, when tied together, created a single narrative of life and inclusion not only for herself, but for those with whom she came in contact. Among those beneficiaries, of course, were Norman, Bill and Rita, whose converging story lines were the key to weaving the four of them into a new family.

Drawing Connections,
~C