LIFE IS ONE LONG MUSICAL

Today we were talking on Facebook about old songs and their lyrics. Jill joined in the conversation, and she and I began to converse using lines from different songs. This reminded me of the songs that she and I shared in some way over the years. Jill laughed and said "Life is one long musical", and I thought, how true!

When Jill and her brothers were very young our family went through a very tumultuous time. Things were very bad between me and my husband, the boys seemed to be getting into some kind of trouble at school a lot, and I had come to a point in my life when I felt trapped and alone. Alone except for my little girl. It was almost as if we had come to a place where it was just her and me against everyone else.

At that time a song came out sung by Helen Reddy, and it became very popular. It was called "You and Me Against the World". I'm not sure Jill understood why, but for me it became "our song". At the end of the song a little girl says, "I love you, Mommy." And Helen Reddy says, "I love you too, Baby." To this day, Jill and I end all of our phone conversations with these lines from that song. This has become one of the most precious moments in my life.

Jill and I are huge Barry Manilow fans, unashamedly. One of Barry's songs became a song that she and I would sing to one another for the rest of our lives because it says exactly how we feel about one another. The song is "I Can't Smile Without You". And I can't hear or sing the song without smiling and thinking of my Jill.

When Jill was a teen she and I listened to the radio a lot, listening to oldies and to the new music of the 80s. A group called Huey Lewis and the News began having hits, and she and I liked their music very much. One day I was in my bedroom reading, and Jill had her radio on in her room, so we both were listening. Huey Lewis and the News came on singing their new hit "Happy To Be Stuck With You". When they got to the chorus I looked up to see Jill's hand sticking out around the door to my room with her thumb and pointer finger pretending to be singing "Happy To Be Stuck With You". A new memory had been established, and today we sing those words to one another and enjoy the love that comes with those words. Oh, and we still do the thumb and finger singing.