Have you ever heard a song that stopped you dead in your tracks?   Most songs have to grow on me.  I listen to them over and over until they are imprinted on my brain.  The repetition is comforting. The Wood Song by the Indigo Girls was the theme song of my mother’s death. I would listen to it ad nauseam and cry buckets. Well, I just found the soundtrack for my dad’s death. This song touched me from the very first moment “The roses came but they took you away.” I’m all in.  I stay in the car until the song is finished.

Dad, you were home in your bedroom just like you wanted. Your last lucid moment had been on Thursday.  Melisse and I were keeping vigil. Waiting. Early Monday the sitter called us down.  It was over.  It was peaceful, it was good.  You were in Heaven and we had no regrets. But then reality kicked in, phone calls, paperwork, funeral home, goons with white gloves.  Melisse took over.  I was spent.  I was up stairs napping when I heard them come to get you.  Two Gothic weirdos right out of central casting.  I swear, one of them had a handle bar mustache and a driving cap.  They zipped you up in a bag and took you away.  They left a single red rose on the bed where you had been.  That part was creepy.

Later that afternoon, I overheard Melisse on the phone with the funeral home. “What do you mean you don’t have him?  Somebody came and got him? Where the heck is he?” Sorry Dad, but we temporarily misplaced you. It turns out “that funeral home up there on Park Avenue” was not specific enough. My bad, I’m from out of town.

Today,pulling into my driveway, I hear this song by The Script.  I sit in my car listening to the rap lyrics, sometimes profane,  until the song is over.  I cry buckets.  I’ve found my theme song for you, Dad.  I miss you.