Traveling music
Play me something I can listen to as I travel to heaven
My SIL died from pancreatic cancer last August. Over the previous summer, before she knew she was sick, I convinced her she needed to learn how to play the harmonica. She was blind, lived in Denmark and every Sunday at 10:00, we would FaceTime a harmonica lesson. My Danish is ok, her English was ok, but neither of us had the vocabulary of music in the other’s language, so there was a fair bit of Danglish as we figured it all out.
She got quite good!
One of her favorite songs was “Always on My Mind” by Elvis Presley. I preferred the Willie Nelson version, but this was one of her mother’s favorites and Elvis was her Taylor Swift, so Elvis it was.
When I was in hospice with her during her final days, she leaned in, grabbed my arm in a grip so tight I can feel it now as I write this, and asked me to play this song when she slipped into the coma she knew was coming, so she could have some music to listen to as she traveled up to Heaven.
Music was incredibly important to her. It was one thing she could carry around with her in her head no matter where she was. She thought everyone should have a song in their head as they traveled their last journey.
I agree.
Gerard, thanks for sharing this. Such a beautiful presentation of writing and music. I played all night on my father‘s last night as well, and your story brought tears to my eyes, fresh and new.
Beautiful. Thanks so much for sharing this.