On the day my sister died, Jennifer and I drove up to meet family members at my niece's house. As soon as we arrived I saw one of the most brilliant rainbows as I've ever seen, then two, then three fainter ones, although the third lowest one is not visible in the picture above.
And this one, the original lyrics were by the Scottish port Robert Tannahill and is very moving:
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If I were to play the music for my sister's service it would be these songs. Oh, there are many others but I would have loved for Marcia to have heard these. I could not find a link to the main song that I would have played in honor of my sister as the daughter of Betsy. I had generally passed over this tune when playing the Kate Rusby's CD "Awkward Annie" but just happened to listen to it yesterday and was floored by the lyrics to "Daughter of Heaven":
Daughter of heaven Oh, daughter of now
Drifting away and don't make a sound
We'll cry when we hear that you ran from this town
She's gone to a new place now
She's gone to a new place now
Daughter of heaven Oh, daughter of now
The stars are your jewels the rubies your crown
We are standing off for your right to stand
She's gone to a new place now
She's gone to a new place now
Daughter of heaven Oh, daughter of now
Your eyes they were closed and your hands they were bound
There's a time in the past when I had to come down
She's gone to a new place now
She's gone to a new place now
Daughter of heaven Oh, daughter of now
Drifting away and don't make a sound
We'll cry when we hear that you ran from this town
She's gone to a new place now
She's gone to a new place now
She's gone to a new place now
Drifting away and don't make a sound
We'll cry when we hear that you ran from this town
She's gone to a new place now
She's gone to a new place now
Daughter of heaven Oh, daughter of now
The stars are your jewels the rubies your crown
We are standing off for your right to stand
She's gone to a new place now
She's gone to a new place now
Daughter of heaven Oh, daughter of now
Your eyes they were closed and your hands they were bound
There's a time in the past when I had to come down
She's gone to a new place now
She's gone to a new place now
Daughter of heaven Oh, daughter of now
Drifting away and don't make a sound
We'll cry when we hear that you ran from this town
She's gone to a new place now
She's gone to a new place now
She's gone to a new place now
*******
This song is quite stunning. My mind wanders back to western North Carolina and the land of my Scottish ancestors:
(click on above)
And this one, the original lyrics were by the Scottish port Robert Tannahill and is very moving:
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I have some old home movies transferred to DVD of my family from 1959 through the early 70s. I have two DVDs of the earliest movies and enough film to do probably 4 or 5 more. I've been doing this every year as Christmas presents to the family as it too expensive to do all at once. I hate Marcia will not see the others but she did see them on the old family projector, what few minutes it ran without "losing the loop" or burning the film when it stopped. They are like looking back in time, and it is sometimes hard to watch, to see those kids who were us, those young parents, and pets long gone.
Yet, for all the craziness on that celluloid, there is a certain beauty in those captured moments at the Angel Oak, or White Point Gardens, or vacation at Blowing Rock. At the latter my brother David, as a young man, is seen running up to the edge of the famous rock outcropping. He was ever so fearless, afraid of nothing and especially not afraid of any consequences he might incur. He lies not far from that rock now, surrounded by the beauty of the gentle Blue Ridge Mountains.
Our family was six, now there are three. My mom Betsy, my younger brother Mark, and myself. In that realization I have very odd feelings of our mortality.
To paraphrase Gibran: We do not know the depth of our love until the hour of passing.
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When will the stream be aweary of flowing
Under my eye?
When will the wind be aweary of blowing
Over the sky?
When will the clouds be aweary of fleeting?
When will the heart be aweary of beating?
And nature die?
Never, oh! never, nothing will die?
The stream flows,
The wind blows,
The cloud fleets,
The heart beats,
Nothing will die.
Under my eye?
When will the wind be aweary of blowing
Over the sky?
When will the clouds be aweary of fleeting?
When will the heart be aweary of beating?
And nature die?
Never, oh! never, nothing will die?
The stream flows,
The wind blows,
The cloud fleets,
The heart beats,
Nothing will die.
Alfred Lord Tennyson
(The link on the title goes to a video from the end of the movie, "The Elephant Man." I gave Marcia my poster of this movie for a Christmas present a few year ago.)
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