All the Places Where my Heart Dwells Today...

September 11th is always a hard day for me to get through. Not only are there so many still-fresh memories of the day when our modern nation lost her innocence, but it seems like every year, something else happens that is just profoundly sad.

Yesterday was no different.


My sister-in-law Lisa lost her mother. To say that Cathy's fight was tough would be the understatement of the year. She fought harder and more nobly for life than anyone I have observed in a very long time. Lisa was beside her every step of the way. Her fight has been years long...not mere days. Lisa's step-dad, and Cathy's husband Jack, is fighting his own battle with cancer and did all he could, too, despite very serious sickness. Cathy needed a liver, and she wavered for a long time between "too sick to get one" or "not sick enough." We had all hoped that she was very close to getting a liver, when a nasty bacteria invaded her, and she just was not able to recover.

Lisa and her mom, Cathy

The last time I got to see her was a couple of years ago on a trip to New Jersey. We had been doing some singing for the grandparents, as they seemed to enjoy our "unusual" a capella style, and someone suggested that we make an impromtu visit over to Cathy and Jack's house. Both had been very sick, and we decided that we had better not get too close with kids, because Jack had been on chemo, etc. (You never know what kids are carrying.) They came out in their driveway, and we stood in the street, and we sang "I'll Fly Away" among other songs. Then Cathy wanted us to try "In the Garden" which was one of her favorites. Jack lended his beautiful voice on that one. We wondered if the neighbors would call the cops on us for standing out in the street singing at the top of our lungs. They didn't, and I just remember the light dancing in Cathy's eyes.



Last Thursday, Lisa sent a beautiful email which recounted this story. It made me cry.



"One of the most beautiful parts of the day was when Jack sang mom the song he always sang to her at piano bars when they were dating and throughout the years. As the EEG leads were being placed and the neuro team evaluated, he sang so beautifully...magically recalling most of the words. It's by Roger Whittaker...called The Last Farewell. This piece tells the tale of a man boarding a ship to England and singing a tearful farewell to his lady love. I always thought as a teen that it was strangely sad love song to sing to a new love. Today it was sad but beautiful....Below are the lyrics Jack sang yesterday. Since I've known him, he has lightly held her chin and stared in her eyes singing the refrain. Yesterday was no different. It's good to see such love."

She then recounted the lyrics.


The Last Farewell"

There's a ship lies rigged and ready in the harbour

Tomorrow for old England she sails

Far away from your land of endless sunshine

To my land full of rainy skies and gales

And I shall be on board that ship tomorrow

Though my heart is full of tears at this farewell

For you are beautiful und I have loved you dearly

More dearly than the spoken word can tell



I heard there's a wicked war ablazing

And the taste of war I know so very well

Even now I see the foreign flag araising

Their guns on fire as we sailed into hell

I have no fear of death it brings no sorrow

But how bitter will be this last farewell

For you are beautiful and I have loved you dearly

More dearly than the spoken word can tell.



Though death and darkness gather all about me

And my ship be torn apart upon the sea

I shall smell again the fragrance of these islands

In the heaving waves that brought me once to thee

And should I return safe home again to England

I shall watch the English mist roll through the dell

For you are beautiful and I have loved you dearly .

More dearly than the spoken word can tell.

Lisa and her mom were as close as a mother and daughter can be. I hope that now, Lisa will have peace, and I pray that somehow, as she looks into the eyes of her three beautiful daughters, she is somehow reminded of Cathy and that she will be comforted. Our hearts are with Jack, too.


My dear cousin, Lloyd, lays his mother (and my grandfather's sister) to rest today closeby to where my grandfather was buried three weeks ago. My heart is with these two dear ones today who have lost their mothers, and with my friend Gemma, who lost her husband Jon on 9-11 just a few short years ago, and all those who gave up a friend or family member on 9-11-01.