A Song in My Throat

Singing - such joy!

My mother was a 13 year old, singing live on the radio in Burlington, Vermont. Wish I had seen and heard that!

Thanks to her, I grew up listening to favorites, such as "How Deep Is the Ocean?" and graduated to show tunes before I hit double digits. I idolized Julie Andrews.

Next I embraced the Kingston Trio - "Hang Down Your Head, Tom Dooly". In college, I sang folk music - Eric Anderson, Peter, Paul and Mary, Judy Collins.

At some point I discovered the passionate native American, Buffy Ste. Marie. Hers was not always a beautiful voice, but one full of pain and struggle. I remember being deeply moved by a quote, which must have come from a record jacket, about life being about the wonderful feeling of having a song in your throat. I can feel that, too.

In the hospital, after the stroke, I sang whenever I had the chance, just to prove I still could.

Yesterday, I sang through "The Bell Song" for the first time in years. Wow, did it feel good! Well, except for the final sustained high E; still, though the E may be gone, the rest felt miraculous.

Light of my life

I treasure this beautiful young woman. She is my 28 year old daughter. I was sick all through my pregnancy with her - all day long for the whole nine months! And then delivering her was awful. She was turned sideways and I was unmedicated by choice - natural childbirth. But she was worth all the pain. Always sweet and outgoing, she would have made friends with Jack the Ripper if he'd come along. She never had a moment's shyness or that wariness that babies sometimes display. She was cheerful and curious.

One of my most delicious memories is her singing. Before she went off to public school, she would amuse herself by making up beautiful songs and I could hear her singing sweetly and joyfully about what she was doing or to Jesus or to one of the cats. The choir director at our church told me, when Sarah was 2 1/2 that I should make a recording of her singing "Winter Wonderland". I wish I had!

S with her cousin K
She was a delightful child, easy to love and with a strong sense of fairness. The only rough years coincided with my estrangement and divorce from her father. She became very rebellious and self-centered. She made some decisions that were very hard to understand and live with. But she pulled herself out of it and went far away for college - all the way to Arizona. From there, she began to find herself. She got her degree in
Elementary Ed and has gone on to teach both 4th grade and now 1st. Her students and their parents LOVE her. She is a wonderful teacher, modeled on her Aunt.

I am very proud of her. And I am grateful to have her in my life. I have so many wonderful memories - like when she was 4 and we held a Christmas open house and She appointed herself the official greeter - and told guests where to put their coats. Or her courage when 3 days before 4th grade she broke her ankle, but went to school on crutches the first day. Or when she was an apprentice docent at Old Museum Village in Monroe, learning to spin a hoop, make a broom and teaching all who visited about the way of life in the 1800's town.

Reading to her 4th graders