One year ago.
I sat in the audience that evening with my parents in red folding chairs in the junior high gymnasium. My friends, Lori and Jo, were there, too. Lori said "Try to Remember" was one of her dad's favorite songs. I believe she said it was sung at his funeral.
It's a special song, she said.
It's a song about realizing life was easier back then . . .
Try to remember when life was so tender
That no one wept except the willow.
Try to remember when life was so tender
That dreams were kept beside your pillow.
After Noah finished singing, my mom leaned over and said, "His voice is so beautiful. It brought a tear to my eye."
It brought a tear to my eye, too.
That evening I felt so happy for Noah. I was proud of him. Many people talked to him afterwards and told him how much they had enjoyed his performance. I wondered where his voice would take him.
I didn't know it at the time, but my dad had been diagnosed with a recurrence of breast cancer a few days earlier. He called me the day after Noah's solo to tell me.
He was gone two months later.
Five months after my dad died, my mom was diagnosed with terminal cancer.
She was gone four months later.
A lot can happen in a year.
This song has a special meaning for our family now, too.
Try to remember the kind of September
When grass was green and grain so yellow.
Try to remember the kind of September
When you were a young and callow fellow,
Try to remember and if you remember then follow.