Soundtrack of His Life (3)

Here are the Blind Boys of Alabama singing Amazing Grace.  It's on his CD of his favorites.  I know why he loved that song, and the version on his CD is Judy Collins-and I know why he picked her.  The song has come to mean something very different to me.  Every time I listen to it I think of him, and the amazing grace I witnessed that he displayed from the moment he was told what he had, until the moment he slipped away.  He truly personified grace.  Anyway, here are the Blind Boys, taking their turn at this wonderful song.

A Step Show even reminds me of him...

Maybe it's just that it is September, and he's totally on my mind.  But I teared up a little bit during the finale of the Step show I went to tonight.  The grand finale had a priest, a baptism, and the Richmond Boys Club singing.  It was emotional and it made me think of him and his earlier days, before he had me.  He truly was meant to be a Father.  What a great show....

The Tree People

This time last year, I was staying with him.  He needed a little bit more help getting around, and so I went to help.  During this time, we watched a college football game out at Berkley. They did a brief little report on the "tree protesters" and I though, "what?"  I naturally googled it, and found out that people were living in the trees to protest the school's plan to cut them down.  I am not making this up.  As I told him this, he gave me that look that said, "gadzooks..." So one of the days that he and I went walking in the pool,  I remarked how great he did in the pool, and how good he seemed walking back and forth; steady on his feet, energized, enjoying the fresh air, smiling.  His life just seemed easiest while he was in the pool.  I joked with him that he should be like the tree people, only he would be a pool person...refuse to get out because he was so happy in that pool.  I told him we could bring him food and water, just like the tree people were having done for them.  It was fun laughing about this plan.

Today I read that after almost two years, the tree people were forced out of the trees, came down, were arrested, and then the trees got cut down.  Somewhere my dad is saying "Jiminey chrismas...those guys were STILL up there?!"  

Always

I'll be loving you always

With a love thats true always

When the things you plan

Need a helping hand

I'll understand always, always

Days may not be fair, always

That's when I'll be there, always

Not for just an hour

Not for just a day

Not for just a year but, always

Days may not be fair, always

That's when I'll be there, always

Not for just an hour

Not for just a day

Not for just a year but, always

The Footprint of One's Life

I traveled to SD to bring him back "home" so to speak.  It is amazing what was found there, all these little footprints of his life.  There was his movie theatre, his old street, his old school, his church that led to his "calling," his dad's workplace, a random book where he is referenced.  

While at the church of his youth, there is a book that has profiles on former students of the affiliated school.  He is in there, with a picture of him, and he is in his collar.  It goes over his path through the seminary, and his first mass.  That mass took place at St. Paul's Catholic Church in Portsmouth, VA.  I was there earlier during Father's Day weekend, and ended up in touch with a woman who knew my dad.   Here is a picture of yet another of his churches, St. Paul's.