Sneak-peek! An excerpt from Part 2

“His words echoed in my mind…”

“I had a good life.”

My Dad and I left the hospital and walked back to the car, not speaking, and still going as slowly as we came in. Shuffling, catching his breath, and more shuffling. You could see the physical toll the tumor was already taking.

We drove back to Hilton Head and neither of us said a word for two hours. The silence between us was heavy. I put on some classical music and I felt the all familiar lump in my throat and tried to quiet my sobs. I didn’t want him to notice because I wondered if this would be the last time he heard this music…

It was the finale of Stravinski’s “Firebird” that played through the speakers. I turned up the volume to feel the booming of the timpani drums and the blaring of the trombones. The finale builds with both the strings and horns, and concludes with a triumphant horn section.

It sounds like the welcoming home of a hero. I couldn’t stop crying and let the tears fall since the music muffled my sobs. If this was the final soundtrack of my Dad’s life, then he deserved this to be played.

My Dad’s declaration from the hospital echoed in my mind as we drove back to Hilton Head…”I had a good life”. And so my tears were not just sorrow, but mixed with joy, and this music an anthem, his anthem to a life well lived.