Sing to the people you love.
Today, my 2 year old Niece sang me a song. Although I am, as her doting uncle, very bias, I thought she sang it beautifully. She insisted that I sing the last line of the song with her. We both clapped, she laughed joyously, and said that she loved me. It has taken a while for me, as a big beardy dude, to win her trust, because even though we are brothers, I look very different to her dad.
We sang ‘You are my Sunshine’ a song is one I had sworn I’d never sing again.
A very dramatic response to such a simple old melody, I know. But that particular melody holds a very sad memory for me.
When I was a music therapist at the Royal Marsden children's cancer ward, I taught a bright young lady that song, so that her and her mother could sing it together. It was the song mum sang to her daughter every morning when she was a child.
Sadly, this particular young woman lost her fight against cancer. for the last months of her life, I would come and see her, play some music and sing with her and her mother.
On her last day on this earth, I was asked by her mother to come and play that song for her, as she had been unable to talk for a while, and was in a lot of pain. I played the song as her mother sang to her, and to both of our surprise, she sang it back. As far as I know, ‘You are My Sunshine’ was the last thing her and anyone ever shared. I was in total bits after, but felt privileged to have been there for such a special moment.
It was so heart-breaking, but reinforced one of my core beliefs in life. Music is practice for real emotions, and one of the most beautiful ways to communicate something so powerful to a person in a way that takes the levity away. A song as simple as ‘You Are My Sunshine’ can change someone's life irrevocably, for better or worse, purely based and when and where you heard it.
Now, when I hear this song, I will remember the last song of a girl telling her mother that she loved her, but also the first song I have shared with someone I love and care for dearly.
