Curious Meanderings from an Artist's World

So when it comes to a major life event, whether good or bad, it must be shared with those of us who share our lives with each other. After thinking about it the last few days, I decided that it would be downright weird to just skip over this as if nothing happened. Honestly, I just couldn't do it. After all, dying is every bit as much a part of life as living. Thank God, in our culture we don’t have to deal with it like our ancestors did, but it is inevitable, isn’t it?

I don’t call the loss of my dad a tragedy, because a tragedy doesn’t have a happy ending, and this one does. After all, my father did have 88 wonderful years to enjoy this life, almost 60 of them had been with my mother before she passed away in 2001. They had five kids together, and gardened, traveled, did Barbershop music and other things they both enjoyed. Like my sweetly romantic husband said when I called to tell him the sad news, Daddy is now reunited with Mama, holding hands, and they are young and well and rejoicing in the presence of a loving God. It’s sad for me because it’ll be a long time before I see Daddy again, but I do believe I’ll see him again some day, (a long time from now) when the time is right.

Like me, Daddy was an artist, but his medium was music. During the war he sang often for the troops, including General Patton. Afterwards, he sang in our church on Sundays and special services, and sang lullabies to me at night. Even my friends had their own special requests when spending the night at my house. No doubt about it, Daddy could have been a famous musician, but chose instead to be a family man.

Actually, without prejudice I can say that Daddy had the #1 most beautiful tenor voice I have ever heard. That includes all the famous singers in the world. Really. Daddy never hit an off note, even once, and sang with great, powerful love and passion for music and for the songs he chose. Every night he would come home from work and sit down at the piano, where he would play tunes of all kinds “by ear“. My sisters and I talked last week about how we would each frequently take a turn, sitting beside him on the piano bench and sing with him or make song requests.

One night I came to Daddy with a new tune request. I wanted him to play “Venus in Blue Jeans” for me as I believed it to be the most beautiful songs in the world.

“I don’t believe I know that one, Deborah,” he said. “How’s it go?” I sang it to him in my best little girl voice. I remember him smiling the whole time. Daddy was always so tickled with children. And then he just started to play his piano and work the tune out with me as I sang.

...Okay. I’m not going to even try to edit this. I know this isn’t the best stuff I’ve ever written, but I’m just going to put it out there so you’ll know where I’ve been.

Thanks for listening. I’ll be back to my regular goofy self in a couple of day. Who knows? Maybe even tomorrow.

Until then, be happy and be well.

Deber