'Monna, Mimmi, Nulla' was my first mantra in life - a list of the three most vital items to me at age 2. Let me translate this toddler language: 'Monna' stands for 'Monster', 'Mimmi' is the 'baby bottle', and 'Nulla' is a derivation for the German word 'Schnuller' meaning 'Pacifier', 'Soother', 'Dummy', or 'Binky'. The 'Mimmi' and the 'Nulla' were things I eventually let go of, but the 'Monna' stayed with me until I was 32 and I took it everywhere.
So far as I remember the story being told, my parents had a small collection of Sesame Street hand puppets on display when I was young which included, Ernie, and Bert, as well as the blue Cookie Monster. I decided the Blue Monster was going to be my best friend and that was it, there was no convincing me otherwise, and so my parents let me keep it. It is that stuffed toy or that comfort blanky that just somehow sticks with you and when it's not around it's a problem! Once it was left behind on a trip to Ireland in the late 80s and the drama was big... My mother tried to replace it by sewing a replica but that did not appease me. I was only whole again when the package with the beloved monster arrived from Ireland and we were reunited.
So much so, was this monster part of life, that my mother wrote a poem about it, that she read at my wedding to John. In it she recalled my returning the monster to her in the summer of 2009. Here it is:
