Weekend Wandering

Each Sunday, David McMahon over at Authorblog posts a question and asks any bloggers interested to answer it. This week, his question is "Which song brings you the best memories?

There are many, many songs that bring special memories into my mind -from a Swedish Christmas Carol "Lyssna, Lyssna" -which our church choir always sings from the narthex of the church every year at the start of our Midnight Christmas Eve service, to another old hymn that is a family favorite -"Children of the Heavenly Father." The latter hymn is one that was a particular favorite of my Grandfather's and which as a small child, he taught me the first verse in Swedish. He often used to sing that hymn to me and in turn, I often chose to sing it to my children as a lullaby. There is something sweet, soft and comforting about it that always calms me. It also is a hymn very frequently sung at many funerals in our church -in particular at many family funerals I've attended over the years and as such, it also often makes me weep. But still I dearly love it and the words are very special to me.

But a song that most people would probably be much more familiar with and which I love, would have to be "Wind Beneath My Wings" as done by Bette Midler.
I haven't been able to figure out as yet how to put a You Tube video on my blog and I' m hoping that the link here will take you to a great performance by the magnificent Ms. Midler of this song.

Why do I love it though?

Because it always reminds me so much of my late aunt -my dad's baby sister, my Aunt Anna Mae, better known to family as "Aunt Mike."

Aunt Mike just passed away this past April, four days after having had her 90th birthday. Regular readers of my blog might recall that it was her beautiful Hammond Organ that I received after her passing too -and which sits here now, beside my lovely little other favorite possession -my computer. Although I did take piano lessons for a while as a child and I can sometimes manage to play through a church hymn without too many errors, I'm far from what one would call a pianist, organist, musician, etc. But my aunt was -she was church organist in her parish for many, many years as well as Music Instructor in her school district too for many years. She did a very good job in both positions too and I always very much admired her ability and talents in that respect.

But my Aunt Mike was special to me for many, many other things too. For the things she did for me, for my children and grandchildren too over the years. For taking it upon herself after my Mom died to invite my kids and me to her home to share Thanksgiving dinners and Christmas dinners up until two years ago, when she had by then had to move into a nursing home with her handicapped daughter.

Aunt Mike was possibly the most -or at least one of the most -loving people I've ever known. She provided so many things to me for sixty some years that enabled me to persevere in the face of adversity -too numerous to even try to think of to list here.

But just from her example of how she lived her life, caring for her daughter, in her home -not an easy task by any means, how she dedicated herself to seeing to it that Jane Ann had the best life possible. how she encouraged me constantly after I decided to go to college at the ripe old age of 46, and with two teenagers at home, still in school, while working full-time, she provided a role model once again for me to keep moving forward.

So anytime I hear this song, my thoughts go immediately to my Aunt Mike and of so many memories of time spent as a child, a teen, a young adult, a mother and grandmother, with her -always learning from her with each visit, each phone call.

And above all, of always feeling and knowing how much she loved me, my kids, grandkids too, and how warm that feeling always was.

She was then, always will be for me "The Wind Beneath My Wings!" All I have to do is hear the melody and the words come to my mind and flood me with an uplift of spirit. Just as any thing about Aunt Mike has done that in the past, I know it will continue to provide those wonderful feelings to me, I know in my heart, this song will continue to that too me in the future too.

Thanks, Aunt Mike, for having been there for me all those years and for being with me still, in my mind, my heart, my soul -through all the wonderful memories.