Life As a Song

I have been thinking a lot lately of how to make a life metaphor, for a friend of mine. It’s an effort to lift her up a little after a tremendous loss. Her young son, 15 years old, passed away after a medical emergency. When I spoke with her, she asked me to write something for our high school class Facebook page, to let everyone know she is doing ok, and what happened to her son. Because of his age, she was concerned that people may think he took his own life, or that maybe it was a drug issue. That’s a tricky thing, having to be the keeper of a person’s legacy, and she takes it very seriously, as she should as his mother.

It really got me thinking, of how do you keep a person’s spirit with you, after their physical life has ended. Especially such a young spirit. I didn’t really know him, I only met him once when he was a very small child. I can’t speak to his personality, likes, hobbies or anything. I only know what his family can tell me. They knew him, they will keep his spirit going. They are now the ones who have to sing his song.

We all have a soundtrack to our lives, whether we are musical or not. There are moments, places, and things that inspire us and make our hearts sing. Some of the songs our hearts sing are happy, some are a little sad, some are loud and some are quiet. Like music playing in the background, it is there, even if we don’t know the words to the song, we hum along whether we realize it or not.

My friend’s son had his life song cut short. But it did play in his heart for 15 years. She was there, and she may not know all the words, but she can continue to sing the parts she knows, and kind of hum along to the rest. Right now it probably is just playing softly in her heart, keeping the beat to keep her going. There are days she will sing along to it without even realizing it, I hope. And as days go on, and she has to adjust to her new reality with him singing softly to her, and he will. The people we love the most never really are completely gone, the music they gave us plays on a constant loop that we don’t always hear, but it plays softly in the background. When you do hear it, your heart will swell with love, and it will be beautiful.

I am old enough to have lost many people I love, and I have written about them before with tears in my eyes. Today my tears are for my dear friend, as today is her young man’s funeral. All the songs that I have singing in my heart are playing today as I write this, all those beautiful voices I had the joy of hearing in life are there. Today I hope more than anything, that my dear friend is surrounded by love, and she will be, and that the song she sings today is that of her boy, singing in her heart. He will also be singing to his brother and father, and all of his his family and friends who knew him, loved him, and know the words of his song, as it lives with them in their hearts for all of their days.