Tag: Death

In the Garden #Musical Monday

Dr. Crystal Grimes inspired me to share this song today. It was a favorite of my late mother-in-law. I sang it many times during the fifteen years I worked as a registered music therapist with nursing home residents.

During the summer of 2006, while my late husband Bill was recuperating from his first stroke in a nursing home, his mother, who lived in a nursing home in Fowler, Colorado, started declining. Soon, her death was eminent.

One Sunday afternoon, I received a phone call from Andy, the activity assistant on duty at the nursing home where Bill was. She told me that his mother had passed away and he was in tears. Thinking his niece had contacted him instead of me, I rushed to his side, only to find out that his mother hadn’t yet gone. Apparently, Bill had broken down during a church service while this song was being sung. Andy had misunderstood the reason for his tears.

A couple of days later, Bill’s mother did pass. But when I told him, he didn’t break down again, as I’d expected. He must have gotten all his grieving out of his system Sunday afternoon. You can read more about this in My Ideal Partner: How I Met, Married, and Cared for the Man I Loved Despite Debilitating Odds. Now, here’s my rendition of this beautiful song.

By the way, for those of you who use the National Library Services for the Blind and Print Disabled, my latest book, The Red Dress, is available for download from their site here. Thank you for reading.

New! The Red Dress

Front cover contains: young, dark-haired woman in red dress holding flowers

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Memoir Pays Tribute to Country Music Icon #Thursday Book Feature

Me & Patsy Kickin’ Up Dust: My Friendship with Patsy Cline

by Loretta Lynn

Foreword written by Dolly Partton

What Amazon Says

Me & Patsy Kickin’ Up Dust shares the “important and inspiring” (Miranda Lambert) never-before-told complete story of the remarkable relationship between country music icons Patsy Cline and Loretta Lynn.

Loretta Lynn and the late Patsy Cline are legends–country icons and sisters of the heart. For the first time ever Loretta tells their story: a celebration of their music and their relationship up until Patsy’s tragic and untimely death.

Full of laughter and tears, this eye-opening, heartwarming memoir paints a picture of two stubborn, spirited country gals who’d be damned if they’d let men or convention tell them how to be. Set in the heady streets of the 1960s South, this nostalgia ride shows how Nashville blossomed into the city of music it is today. Tender and fierce, Me & Patsy Kickin’ Up Dust is an up-close-and-personal portrait of a friendship that defined a generation and changed country music indelibly–and a meditation on love, loss and legacy.

My Thoughts

In this book, not only does Loretta talk about her friendship with Patsy, she also tells part of her story after Patsy’s death, explaining how Patsy inspired her after she passed. The Audible version is narrated by Loretta’s daughter, Patsy Lynn Russell, who was born after Patsy’s death and named after her. Patsy does an excellent job. I felt as if Loretta, not her daughter, was telling me her story. I almost cried at the end when Loretta says that if you listen to Patsy Cline’s songs, she’s singing them just for you.

Well, Patsy Cline was singing just for me and my late husband Bill. Her rendition of “True Love” was on the cassette of love songs Bill sent me after he proposed. You can learn more about that by reading My Ideal Partner.

Meanwhile, if you like Loretta Lynn’s or Patsy Cline’s music, I encourage you to read Loretta’s touching tribute. Then, see how many of Patsy’s songs you can find on Amazon Music or other such services.

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By the way, if you use the National Library Services for the Blind and Print Disabled, my latest book, The Red Dress, is now available on the site. Click here to download the book.

New! The Red Dress

Front cover contains: young, dark-haired woman in red dress holding flowers

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I Will Always Love You #Monday Musical Memories

In 2005, when my late husband Bill proposed to me, he was living in Fowler, Colorado, and I, here in Sheridan, Wyoming. He sent me a cassette of love songs he’d downloaded from the Internet. If he could have given me another cassette containing more songs related to his eminent death in 2012, this would have been one of them.

With his declining health and paralysis, Bill thought that if he hung around, he’d only be in the way. He thought he wasn’t what I needed. If I’d spent more time with him after he moved to the nursing home, maybe he would have understood how much I valued his love and support.

The nursing home was only a temporary placement until he could get into a facility where he would have a room to himself with plenty of space for his recliner and computer. With a laptop, I could have easily worked away from home. If he’d waited, we both might have been happy for many years to come.

But what’s done is done and can’t be undone, according to Shakespeare. So, I can only hope that wherever he is, he still loves me after seven years apart. I will always love him.

By the way, you can learn more about Bill and me by reading My Ideal Partner: How I Met, Married, and Cared for the Man I Loved Despite Debilitating Odds. This book, along with my latest, The Red Dress, is available absolutely free this week as part of the Smashwords 11^th Annual Read an eBook Week. Click here for more information and to download the books. Happy reading and thank you for stopping by today.

New! The Red Dress

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Stormy Weather #Monday Musical Memories

Tuesday, November 5^th, will be the seventh anniversary of my late husband Bill’s graveside service. He passed on October 30^{th, 2012,} at a nursing home here in Sheridan, Wyoming. He was buried almost a week later in his hometown of Fowler, Colorado. You can learn more by reading My Ideal Partner: How I Met, Married, and Cared for the Man I Loved Despite Debilitating Odds. Now, I’ll sing you the song I performed at his graveside service.

Stormy Weather

New! The Red Dress

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