Hi, Donna and Pat,
The Long Goodbye CD arrived this afternoon.
Thank you so much. I'll be taking the CD to work and to church tomorrow.
It's something that should be shared.
I have to tell you that I've shed some very special tears while listening to
the CD and reading the insert. I know you weren't able to use my dad's tree
poem, but when I read "Lay Me Down Gently" I knew you had done even better.
My dad died of a heart attack while he was alone at our place on Shagawa
Lake, just a couple hours after I had talked with him on the phone. This was
the day before he was to fly home to Ohio after visiting family in Ely. As
shattering as it was for us, we knew deep down in our hearts that this had
always been Dad's prayer - to die by the lake in Ely. God had taken his
woodsman home. Rich's dad said it perfectly. And the pictures you selected
were eerily just like the two I had just selected for one of the pages in
the Shagawa Lake album I've been working on - Dad's last fishing trip. The
dock scene was the same! Your song will always have a special place in my
heart.
Also, when Donna said that music was the last thing that her dad had lost, I
thought of what a wonderful gift that had been for me when my mother was on
her Alzheimer journey. It was after midnight on Christmas Eve and I had just
gotten home after leaving my mother's hospital room, when I got a call from
one of the nurses. They had heard beautiful singing from down the hall and
had gone down to see who was still there singing for the patients. It turned
out to be my mom, eyes closed and lying in a fetal position, but singing
"Silent Night" loudly and clearly. The entire staff gathered in the hall,
held hands and cried. God works in strange ways.
So, even though you don't really know me, you have both touched me deeply.
May you always have a song to sing and a story to share. Thank you.
Sheri Dochat