John 3:16 – Be thankful, grateful, patient, charitable, kind, and smile, as it is infectious. God Bless America; protect our president and Military!
First, some history – My father passed suddenly on August 12, 1976, just four days before our first child, our daughter Marie, was born. My wife’s water bag broke as we were leaving the viewing at Donohue Funeral Parlor that night. She would be born at 3:30 a.m. on August 16, 1976. By the time we got her, weighed and printed and incubated in the nursery, and my wife was in the comfort of a bedroom, it was going on 6:30 a.m. I mention this as I had to run home to get ready to attend my father’s funeral Mass and burial that day.
A few years later, my mother compiled a video of their family life, highlighting each child, the year we were born, and some oral history of the time, and listing each of my six siblings in the order we came into the family. This video was posted by my now-late brother Larry on Facebook about 10 years ago. As I type, I am reminded that we just passed the second anniversary on July 7, 2024, of his passing
My brother Larry was very artistic and quite talented in several bands and wrote and copyrighted many songs, which you can still find on SoundCloud under Lawrence Donahue. One of the songs he penned was for this family video called Thanks for the Memories. He recorded on a tape recorder, and partway through it, you can hear two things: a teapot boiling, a train passing, and my mother complimenting him on the song. Looking back on this and listening now to their voices is not only haunting, but also oddly relevant yet appropriate.
I have embedded the link below to the song in a very unplugged version, simply called “Dad’s Song.” Listen to the words carefully, as they carry a lifetime of weight in his words.
Opening lyrics – “Sometimes I find myself daydreaming of you, funny how memories fade. It seems so real I feel that I could touch you, just as your thought passed away.” CHORUS – “Ours was a world filled with love, where laughing came easy, and smiles brought tears. I said to someone above, please let it last through the years…” Second Verse – Now that you’re gone, I feel I can’t go on, and I long to be with you again…” Back to Chorus
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