Musical Soul

-

 Today was Mom's funeral.  While we were planning the service we called it a celebration of life.  In the end, it was a funeral.  An opportunity for friends and family to gather, celebrate, mourn and bring resolve to the unsettled feeling when someone of significance is no longer physically with us but forever part of us.

While my sister, Dad and I were planning the service, we decided we wanted to incorporate John Denver's "Take me Home, Country Roads" into the service as my Dad associates going home as a metaphor to back to Pennsylvania and going to heaven to be at home with God.  It is a song that holds deep meaning for my Mom and my Dad.

I had other ideas...  I wanted to include "Rocky Mountain High" in the service because to me the song speaks to my Mom's delight in nature - the birds, the wind, the trees, the sun and being free when she breathed the clean air in the sun while the birds chirped...  

We settled on opening the service with Rocky Mountain High and closing the service with Take Me Home.  Throughout the meditation our pastor weaved the fabric of Mom's life, our family and our friends together with thread of John Denver's poetic lyricism.  It was elegant.  It was beautiful.  It was meaningful.  It was Mom.

My Dad wanted everyone to listen to the music.  I suggested we have everyone sing the songs together as a group of friends and it would occupy everyone if members of the family were emotionally moved during the music.  They'd be focused on reading and singing instead of what we were doing.  We sang as a community.  We opened the service and closed the service with John Denver's finest anthems.  Musically celebrating my Mom's life with music.

I don't think those in attendance will ever hear those songs the same away after sharing in celebration of my Mom.  While planning the service, I related to the words much more deeply.  The lyrics are poetic and powerful, yet tender and gentle; capturing the essence of Mom's spirit.  

My Dad gave me the cds remaining from their collection.  I asked my Dad if he wanted to hang on to them a little while longer.   He told me he wanted me to have them.  I looked at him and told him I wasn't sure if I wanted to take them so soon because I feel like I was taking part of Mom.  He looked at me and said "That's why I want you to have them."  My heart swelled and tears rained.

John Denver sang about things that mattered to my mom.  They saw the world from a shared lens.  They had the same priorities in care for others, the environment, nature and the like.  Tonight I realized that John Denver is the musical soul of my family.  My Mom, my Dad, my sister and me - all touched by John Denver's music.  John Williams is my musical soul mate.  John Denver is my Mom's musical soul mate and in turn, our family's musical soul.

The words to each song sang at the funeral are below:

Rocky Mountain High:

He was born in the summer of his 27th yearComing home to a place he'd never been beforeHe left yesterday behind him, you might say he was born againYou might say he found a key for every door
When he first came to the mountains his life was far awayOn the road and hanging by a songBut the string's already broken and he doesn't really careIt keeps changing fast and it don't last for long
But the Colorado Rocky Mountain highI've seen it rainin' fire in the skyThe shadow from the starlight is softer than a lullabyRocky Mountain high (Colorado)Rocky Mountain high (high in Colorado)
He climbed cathedral mountains, he saw silver clouds belowHe saw everything as far as you can seeAnd they say that he got crazy once and he tried to touch the sunAnd he lost a friend but kept the memory
Now he walks in quiet solitude the forests and the streamsSeeking grace in every step he takesHis sight has turned inside himself to try and understandThe serenity of a clear blue mountain lake
And the Colorado Rocky Mountain highI've seen it rainin' fire in the skyTalk to God and listen to the casual replyRocky Mountain high (high in Colorado)Rocky Mountain high (high in Colorado)
Now his life is full of wonder but his heart still knows some fearOf a simple thing he cannot comprehendWhile they try to tear the mountains down to bring in a couple moreMore people, more scars upon the land
And the Colorado Rocky Mountain highI've seen it rainin' fire in the skyI know he'd be a poorer man if he never saw an eagle flyRocky Mountain high
Colorado Rocky Mountain highI've seen it rainin' fire in the skyFriends around the campfire and everybody's highRocky Mountain high (high in Colorado)Rocky Mountain high (high in Colorado)

Country Roads, Take Me Home:

Almost Heaven, West VirginiaBlue Ridge Mountains, Shenandoah RiverLife is old there, older than the treesYounger than the mountains, growin' like a breeze
Country roads, take me homeTo the place I belongWest Virginia, mountain mamaTake me home, country roads
All my memories gather 'round herMiner's lady, stranger to blue waterDark and dusty, painted on the skyMisty taste of moonshine, teardrop in my eye
Country roads, take me homeTo the place I belongWest Virginia, mountain mamaTake me home, country roads
I hear her voice in the mornin' hour, she calls meThe radio reminds me of my home far awayDrivin' down the road, I get a feelin'That I should've been home yesterday, yesterday
Country roads, take me homeTo the place I belongWest Virginia, mountain mamaTake me home, country roads
Country roads, take me homeTo the place I belongWest Virginia, mountain mamaTake me home, country roads
Take me home, (down) country roadsTake me home, (down) country roads

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

I shoulda been a mechanic

-
I often say I should have been a mechanic or a carpenter.  Probably mechanic.  Our front door lock mechanism has been acting up.  It has a typical entry from the front where you push down with your thumb to turn the cylinder to open the door.  The back of the door door knob fell off because it had gotten loose and stripped out the holes.  Turns it out it was much more than that - I had to figure out how to get the entire front pull door handle off to fix it because the latch mechanism fell apart.  I learned this after replacing the door knob and it was still not working properly.  I figured out how to get the pull door handle off and it hit the ground and fell apart into like a dozen different pieces.  I had never seen the mechanism together....  with some trial and error I figured out how it works and was able to time the mechanism and put it back together.  I rebuilt it!!  All the plates, gears, levers, pins, springs and gears. ...
Read more

My Mom Died

-
On Monday my mom proclaimed the promise of her baptism. After years of suffering from dementia, she was restored; made whole on the other side. One thing you may not know about my mom is she was tough as nails while having the grace of an angel. She carried my dad through some medical scares and was a huge advocate to him getting the care he needed with her medical background as a registered nurse. Roughly 10 years ago I was charged with taking mom back to Pennsylvania to see her dad, my pappy when he moved into a nursing home. We went to his house and there had been some changes to the back porch. It was my job to take care of mom. I saw my uncle and leapt up onto the raised porch. There used to be a railing around the porch. Mom tried to do the same and tripped on the ledge letting out a yell. Her leg got pretty torn up and was bleeding pretty bad. We got her into the house and decided she needed to go to the hospital. Mom never flinched or complained about the situati...
Read more

I've seen things

-
The last couple days of my mom's life...  don't quite know what to say about them.  I remember last Sunday when I came to her house and saw her slumped in the chair barely able to move after the medication fell out of her mouth and onto her shirt.  No one was available to change her shirt.  I asked my Dad if he would do it and he declined.  I did it.  It was the most awkward thing.  I had her told the clean shirt up to cover herself as I carefully removed the dirty shirt.  I planted by eyes next to her head looking at the back to her chair and was able to help my Mom be comfortable while preserving her dignity.  There are some things about your parents that you shouldn't know.  Like what an 80 year old body looks like while deprived of nutrients and exercise....  So there was that. Then seeing my Mom in the hospital bed after she could no longer walk.  Laying there with her head cocked to the side and her mouth open as dying pr...
Read more