Member-only story
Song Lyrics To Ease the Pain
“Why does my heart go on beating? Why do these eyes of mine cry? Don’t they know it’s the end of the world. It ended when you said goodbye” (“End of the World” written by Arthur Kent and Sylvia Dee and recorded by Skeeter Davis in 1962).
When our 30-year-old daughter, Maria, fell victim to cancer in late January of last year, I found myself singing various songs to help me through the days that followed. Some were popular songs I remembered from my youth. Others were modern songs that reminded me of Maria. Still others were traditional Christian songs that we had sung together in church during her growing years or during her final 30 days in the hospital. All of these songs helped me or haunted me in different ways.
“I wake up in the morning, and I wonder why everything’s the same as it was. I can’t understand. No, I can’t understand why life goes on the way it does” (“End of the World” written by Arthur Kent and Sylvia Dee and recorded by Skeeter Davis in 1962).
I have always been a singer, even though I don’t have a great voice. When I was about ten years old, in fact, and preparing to sing at church with all of the other altar boys, one of the nuns sidled up to me and said, “Jim, just move your lips.” Despite that early end to my public singing career, I have continued to hum or sing as I go through my daily activities. I can vividly recall…
