Category: My Tribe

Posted on

Forty-Two

A week after my Dad passed away last December, my Mom told me that there was this phone message from the local CVS store left for my Dad. She had said that the caller stated that some photo my Dad had sent in for “restoration” would take a little longer than they had originally thought; that it might be a few weeks more.

Mom had told me this because she wasn’t aware that my Dad was having a photo “restored” and wondered if I knew anything about it. Which I had not.

Flash forward to late March of this year. In preparation for her taxes, Mom had stopped by CVS on the way home to get a record of her medication costs for 2010. While she was there, Mom suddenly remembered the phone message she received back in December, so she decided to stop by the photo section. She spoke to the technician there who had told her, “Yes, we were wondering what happened. He was insistent on getting the picture done as soon as he could. And then we never heard from him.”

After my Mom explained what had happened, the photo technician was so surprised. “I’m so sorry,” she said. “In fact, we were just about ready to call back again.”

When Mom took the photo out of the envelope, this is what she saw:

Yesterday would have been their 42nd Wedding Anniversary. And I’m sure my Mom’s heart felt broken yet once again. Because I know that I’m missing my Dad every single minute of every single day.

Happy Anniversary Mom & Dad. You might not physically be by each other’s side … but I know in spirit, you are.

 

Posted on

A Song I Want Played At My Funeral

Day Twenty-Four – A Song I Want Played At My Funeral:

It started a few years ago … probably even longer. Come to think of it, Hubby &I probably started to have discussions about what song we’d want to have at our own funerals shortly after we had seen “Love, Actually” when Liam Neeson’s character plays “Bye Bye, Baby” by the Bay City Rollers at his recently-deceased wife’s funeral service.

When Hubby’s grandmother passed away in January of 2008, Hubby’s family had asked him to put together a slide show that they could take with them back to the Philippines, where his “Nanay” would finally placed at rest. But when you have a slide show, you must have accompanying music to go with the slide show, right? So Hubby & I had come up with a handful of songs to place on this DVD slide show: “Because You Loved Me” by Celine Dion was an obvious choice. We also threw in Boyz II Men’s “A Song For Mama” for good measure. (That song gets me every time!)

A few months after that project was completed, Hubby told me about a song that came up on digital music library. He had been missing his Nanay when Rob Thomas’ “Now Comes The Night” came on. It was a song, he said, that was perfect to play at a funeral.

A Hard Day ... Last quiet moment together as a family

Of course, I had to listen to the song right away … and when I did, I couldn’t help but think the same thing. Because, as sad as the song sounded, the lyrics were hopeful and uplifting.

In fact, it’s a song I can listen during the days when I miss my Dad the most. Because it reminds me that – even though he’s not physically here next to me – he’s still with me in spirit.

So this would be the song that I’d like to be played at my own funeral … I want those family and friends to feel comforted that I will still be with them, looking over them in the best way that I can.

~~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~~

What is with this 30-day song challenge?

What was yesterday‘s song?

 

Posted on

A Song I Played At My Wedding

Day Twenty-Three – A Song I Played At My Wedding:

One of the movie dates Hubby & I went on when we were still dating was Aladdin. We had loved the humor of the movie so much (not to mention what cuteness occurred during our showing of the movie) that it quickly became a favorite of ours.

A few months later, in one of my rare displays of creativity … I surprised Future-Hubby with a nice romantic picnic on the floor of my dorm room. And since the movie was no longer in the theaters, I happened to find all the makings of an Aladdin-themed picnic for a very modestly cheap, “I’m a broke college student”-type price. To this day, Hubby & I look back on that “date” with such fond memories.

When it came time to plan our wedding, Hubby & I had no intention of having anything but your standard, middle-class Filipino-American reception. We never thought that we’d associate a theme with our wedding. But in another one of my rare displays of creativity (Hubby’s the one with the Fine Arts Degree … not me!), the thought of doing something around an Aladdin theme came to mind. And luckily, Hubby thought the idea was also brilliant.

So … here’s what we did to make our wedding unique. First off, Hubby wanted to design our wedding invitations; which, in 1996 was not a very common thing to pull off. Second, we decided that our wedding favors would be in the shape of Aladdin’s magic lamp and contain pieces of candy inside of it. Thirdly … we wanted to use a musical porcelain figurine of Aladdin & Jasmin on the Magic Carpet as our cake topper. And finally, the fact that the figurine could wind up and play “A Whole New World,” which we decided would be our “First Dance” song … well that was the icing on the cake (both literally and figuratively).

And that’s the song (one of many songs played that night) that we had at our wedding.

Here’s a video (seen on the Aladdin DVD) of how the song came to be …

~~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~~

What is with this 30-day song challenge?

What was yesterday‘s song?

Posted on

Dimming The Lights

Today is Father’s Day … and this will be the first year I’ll be without my Dad.

I’ve been having a pretty rough go at it all the days leading up to today. And even now, after I hit “publish” on this post, I’m not quite sure what the rest of the day will bring.

What I do know is that I’m sad. Extremely sad. More sad that I ever thought I’d be. And it sucks because I miss my Dad so much.

And instead of making a trip to the cemetery today, I would rather be making the trip to a steak house where I could treat Dad to the “steak dinner” he always wanted every year. And I wish I could physically put my arms around him and hug him … and thank Dad for all he’s done for me over the years.

So to honor my Dad, I’ll be taking a break from the whole 30-Day Song Challenge. Instead, I’ll be dimming my “Broadway Lights” because it looks like it’ll be a “solo tonight … but I think I’ll be alright.”

I love you and miss you to pieces, Dad. Happy Father’s Day.

 

Posted on

A Song From My Favorite Band

Day Eleven – A Song From My Favorite Band:

Uhm. Yeah … INXS is my favorite band. Ever. I’d say that it was all because of Michael Hutchence, but then explain to me why I’m still going to see them in concert at the end of July? (I. Can’t. Wait !!! )

I don’t know … there’s something about their music that makes me smile. It brings up lots of memories for me whenever I hear one of their songs.

Like whenever I hear “The One Thing,” I think of buying Star Hits magazines back in 1983 and watching that video on MTV (again, back when they actually played music videos!) with my cousin.

Or whenever I hear “What You Need” … I think of every single cheesy high school dance I had ever gone to.

“Disappear” is inherently a happy song; both in lyrics and in the music. I’m thinking that’s why, when the album “X” was released during my second year of college, it suddenly became our dorm room floor’s drinking song. Yep; that and the B-52’s “Roam.”

(What is it about reminiscing my college days lately?)

We were SO lucky to meet the band in 1986, before they blew up BIG

This, by no means, is my absolute favorite INXS song. I have waaaay too many favorite INXS songs to choose from. “Disappear” just happens to be a great song.

Besides I like this video. And I can no longer find the original “Don’t Change” video … which would otherwise have been posted for today’s song.

~~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~~

What is with this 30-day song challenge?

What was yesterday’s song?

Check out this other INXS post. You won’t regret it.