Song for Mom
Contents of this blog post:
1. Song for Mom - listen on YouTube, Spotify, Apple Music
2. Enjoy some photos from my Mom's life.
3. Read about the Song for Mom writing process.
4. Read some comments on the song.
5. Read my speech from her Memorial Service.
Hello everyone,
Song for Mom is a piece I wrote for flute and piano, inspired by and dedicated to my Mom, Edith Reed. She had a hemorrhagic stroke on April 5th, last year. That night I woke up in the middle of the night, went to the piano, and began writing the piece. Unfortunately she died the next afternoon, on April 6th, with me, my brother Dan, his wife Christy, my younger brother Andy's childhood sock monkey, and a couple friends, by her side. Over the next week in Indiana, I poured my grief into the flowing piano part and rather Celtic sounding melody, and since I had already booked a flight to Cyprus for April 13th, our family decided that we would have Mom's Memorial Service after I returned to the US.
Enjoy some photos from my Mom's life!
During my 5 weeks visiting friends in Cyprus, I felt as if my Mom's spirit was moving through me as I continued writing the piece on my friend Anastasios's grand piano. And the developing piece was almost always in my head as we took many trips all over the beautiful island. Cyprus is truly amazing. Just about every time you round a bend while driving or walking, you encounter a breathtakingly beautiful sight, as you explore the magnificent coastline, mountains, monasteries, castles, ancient ruins, fascinating bigger cities, cozy little picturesque villages, vineyards, wild herbs growing seemingly everywhere-even by city sidewalks, and orange, lemon, carob, almond trees, an uncanny plethora of Maseratis, Lamborghinis, Bentleys, and other super-expensive cars, friendly people on both the Greek and Turkish side of the island, and so much more.
I feel that Song for Mom has a bit of that Mediterranean isle feeling, mixed with a Celtic flair, combined with the sweet, loving, joyful spirit of my Mom. My Cypriot friend Anastasios, who is, like me, a classical music aficionado, made helpful, encouraging comments as the piece developed over the weeks on the piano in his living room. I was pleasantly surprised when he said that a few phrases reminded him of Grieg and Liszt. I wrote out the flute part and sent it via Email to Leela Breithaupt, who agreed to record the flute part with me playing the piano part, when I returned to the US.
After a long journey which included spending all night in the airport of Doha, Qatar, I arrived back in Bloomington, Indiana on Wednesday, May 22nd. On Thursday, May 23rd, Leela and I rehearsed the piece. I was really pleased to hear that she loved the piece, and said that it reminded her of Bohuslav Martinu, who happens to be one of my favorite composers! On Friday, May 24th, Leela and I recorded Song for Mom at Airtime Studios, with Chip Reardin as engineer. Then I drove to Columbus, Ohio, on Saturday, May 25th. Our recording of Song for Mom was played during a slideshow of photos from her life during her Sunday, May 26th Memorial Service at a Unitarian Church, where she had been a long-time member.
Song for Mom was officially released soon afterwards. Here are a few comments from people who enjoy the piece:
“Love this beautiful piece, Tim. Your mom must've been a beautiful person!” Gail Thompson Merrill
“So beautiful and cheerful. It gave me a sense of a youthful spirit finishing up her work traveling from person to person until like a butterfly flies away joyfully Thank you for sharing and such a beautiful memorial to your mom” Mary Elizabeth Murphy
“As I listened to this music I could envision her in her garden in the back of the house on Colonial. It was a peaceful place to sit. I would sit back there with her and she helped me through some difficult times.” Julie Fultz
“Beautiful words and beautiful tune. Love the lightness, it does remind one of Edie. She was such a wonderful lady, a true mentor to my mom.” Elizabeth Haefele
”This song is a beautiful tribute to your mother's spirit. It reminds me of a butterfly flitting from flower to flower. It is happy, lively and very animated. Happy birthday in heaven! (My Mama died in April as well, two days before her 84th birthday...spring was her favorite season).” Jaime Sweany
“What a beautiful piece and a lovely tribute to Edie. The words lovely and refreshing come to mind when I hear it.” Kathleen Fowler
“Happy Mother’s Day in Heaven...” Olin Williams
”I did get a chance to listen to it. Very lovely. You are fortunate to be able to channel your feelings through music.” Patty Lynne
”A true testament to the bond between mother and son. I so enjoyed reading the backstory to your inspiration for this composition Tim. What an amazing mom you had.” Kitt Chapman
In the YouTube comments you can read the speech I gave at her Memorial Service or read the speech below.
Hope you enjoy Song for Mom!
Cheers,
Tim
My speech at Mom's Memorial Service:
Our hearts dropped to the floor when the doctor told us the results of the CT scan, on the night of April 6th, 2019. She said that Mom had had a hemorrhagic stroke, and that she had possibly days, maybe hours, but probably not weeks, before she would die.
After she and the assistants left the hospital room, Dan and Christy and I did a group hug and cried. Before Mom was transferred to hospice, we sang her a few songs: Amazing Grace, Morning Has Broken, and Skinnamarinky Dinky Dink, which she used to sing at Happy Hollow Day Camp, when we were kids. I could barely get the words and tones out.
We decided that Christy would take the first night shift at hospice, so Dan and I went to our homes. I took a long time to go to sleep, and then kept waking up. Finally, in the middle of the night, I went to the piano and wrote the beginnings of a piece for flute and piano that I felt embodied Mom’s spirit.
When I arrived at hospice the next day, Mom looked pretty much the same, but I was glad that she was out of the hospital room, and by a big window with trees and hundreds of daffodils. Her favorite music was playing softly. As I was texting with students who I had to cancel the previous day because of her stroke, trying to re-schedule them, just at the end of John Denver’s Country Roads, or maybe at the beginning of Rocky Mountain High, Mom stopped breathing. We darted over to her, and put our hands on her. Yes, she had stopped breathing, but her heart was still beating, and she had a pulse. Since her stroke the day before, she had been unresponsive, with no purposeful movements, but somehow, even though she had stopped breathing, she moved her left arm, which had been extended straight, up toward her heart, coddling my brother Andy’s childhood sock monkey, which he had given her a couple weeks ago, and which Dan had thought to put in the ambulance, before we left Garden Villa, where she had resided for her last 5 months.
I had been hoping that Mom would live awhile longer. Life was becoming increasingly difficult for her, but she was still able to experience some enjoyment, and some joy. She really enjoyed singing alto in the Meadowood Singers, a senior’s choir for which I am the pianist and musical director. A couple days after she died, I picked up her Meadowood Singers music notebook, which was on the top of a pile of music in my car, to use it for a surface to fill out a bank deposit. After sending the checks through the drive-in shoot, I opened her notebook, and noticed that she had written, in her shaky handwriting, the date of our spring concert on the inside cover. May 22nd 7pm. So I think she was hoping to live longer, too.
I miss her terribly. I feel that her spirit has been moving through me, as I have been working on the piece for flute and piano, over the last few weeks, and which I completed a couple weeks ago, while visiting friends on the beautiful island of Cyprus.
It was nice it was to have her in Bloomington, Indiana, where Dan and Christy and family and I live, for her last couple years. We had so many good times together. We went to concerts, movies, restaurants, nature hikes, country drives, out for ice cream, she sat in on many of my piano and voice lessons, and we spent many hours just hanging out at Dan and Christy’s house, where she lived for 15 months, and then at Garden Villa. She especially liked when I would help her get ready for bed, and tuck her in, which often was quite an elaborate process, with her dementia. Sometimes I would get her to laugh by doing things like grabbing her toes and saying, “this little piggy, etc.”
A couple days after she died, when I woke up that morning, the last thing I remembered from a dream was Mom, looking at me with her eyes larger than life, like a wise, loving owl, watching over me, to make sure I was OK.
We agreed that my speech would focus mostly on her last couple years, but I would like to share a few anecdotes from my wonderful 58 years with her.
After Mom and Dad separated, she commuted 60 miles from Mansfield to Ohio State University in Columbus, for a year, going full time, to complete her undergraduate degree and begin her Master’s degree in Social Work. So for that year, except for when we were in school, Dan and I were with babysitters, or on our own, and Andy was in day care, from early morning until evening every week day.
So Mom trained Dan and I to cook breakfast, lunch, dinner, clean house, how to sew on a button, and to wash, dry, iron, and fold laundry. I was 10 and Dan was 8! We grew up fast. I doubt whether many kids today know how to do all of these things at such an early age. But that gives you some insight into Mom’s indomitable spirit.
Mom was always very supportive of all 3 of her son’s various activities and creative pursuits, but she would sometimes offer advice, as well. While I was away at college, studying music and theater and various liberal arts, she would send me articles with titles such as “former music majors excel in medical school”. I think Mom thought that I had the qualities of a healer, and thought also that I would benefit from having a doctor’s income. But, hopefully through my music, writing, performing, and teaching, I have and will continue to transmit more healing energy, and earn more money that I ever could have, had I become a medical doctor.
Now, I’d like to play you a recording of that flute and piano piece I mentioned. I call it “Song for Mom”. I am playing piano, and Leela Breithaupt is playing flute. We recorded this past Friday evening in Bloomington, Indiana, at Airtime Studios. Hope you enjoy it. Love you forever, Mom.