Mom And Dad By My Side

If either or both of your parents are gone, what reliable way have you discovered to bring them back?

Regular readers might recall several posts I've published over the years about my folks - sometimes on their birthdays. Each of those posts has been squarely aimed at keeping them close to me. But last Wednesday and again earlier today, I re-discovered how music is a surefire method to get Mom and Dad by my side.

Last week I ended day one of my current music class - entitled "Not Quite Jazz 101" - with Benny Goodman's 1937 classic "Sing, Sing, Sing". As people were leaving the room an odd sensation came over me listening to that 8:00 of unmitigated energy. I couldn't get my then nineteen year old Dad or seventeen year old Mom out of my head. The passion, drive, and excitement in that music must have ignited my teenage parents as surely as "Ain't too Proud To Beg" did to me. I walked out of that classroom on fire and played "Sing, Sing, Sing" all the way home in my car.

Then, today I opened day two by playing the same song. As Gene Krupa pounded his intro, I saw my Father playing the ukulele as my Mother sang. When the horns burst in with the first theme, I could picture my folks as teenagers and tried imagining the way they looked at one another falling in love. During Benny's 16 bar solo, I saw Mom and Dad dancing. The song kept playing. My voice caught as I began riffing to the class on the vivid sense I had that my parents were a presence in that room.

What shakes you to your core like music does to me? Discovering another gift music has bestowed on me - i.e. helping my parents feel tangibly at my side, however briefly - is not at all surprising. After all, music has given me a life. Now, it's also going to be bit easier for me to call back the folks that literally gave me life.