what’s a “munner”?

“Munner” comes from the best pronunciation of the word “grandmother” that my oldest cousin could muster when she was a toddler. The nickname stuck, and that is what everyone called my grandmother.

Munner was a master gardener, a charter member of the Fort Worth, Texas Garden Club, and spent nearly all of her waking hours devoted to her plants and trees.

For a gay red-headed step child such as myself Munner’s garden was a place I felt safe, and where I felt needed.

Some of the things I’ll always remember about her is that she always said “Often the best tools are your hands.” She also knew that I loved to sing and so she told me that if I sang to the flowers it would keep them in bloom. So I still do that sometimes.

As it turns out “munner” is also the plural form of an early Norse-Germanic word for “mouth” or “to speak.” So “many mouths, many speakers” 

I also like that it kind of sounds like the word “mummer,” a person who dresses extravagantly and parades the public square with music, dance and satire. 

All these meanings harken an ancestry of pale cold-hardy pagan peasants and nomads living off the land.