Music and my Mother

When I think of being little, there's this amazing soundtrack and my mother is central to so many of them.

Sing by the Carpenters
So Nice to be with You by Gallery
I Believe in Music by Mac Davis

The one that is the most defining though, is Sunshine by John Denver. I can remember an Easter morning on the way home from Mass and we were in the Monte Carlo (which was maroon and we called it Dracula) and that song was on the radio and I had a little white hat and white gloves and a little shiny purse. I remember sitting on the floorboard (I did that a lot, sat on the hump between the seats) and looking up and seeing Mother and Daddy and the sun was just pouring in and I thought Mother was the most beautiful thing I'd ever seen. Ever.

She was until I was eighteen and I saw Manda and, somehow, when I think about her, that's still what my heart remembers. That minute in Independence with the light all around her.