Over the last couple of weeks I started watching “Zoey’s Extraordinary Playlist.” Have you seen it? In this series the main character develops the ability to hear people’s innermost thoughts in the form of song. She is the only one who can hear them and big musical numbers happen all around her constantly. If you like musicals, you will probably like this. I’m not sure if it’s classified as a comedy or a drama, and while it certainly has plenty of comedic elements, it has made me cry quite a bit. Zoey’s dad, who (spoiler alert) passes away at the end of season one, cannot communicate with his family because of his disease, other than by way of a buzzer and later via keyboard. But Zoey can hear him sing to her. These are some of the best scenes in the series. Of course I naturally thought of my dad when watching these scenes. Even thought it’s not Music Friday I’m sharing a video with you today because it seems appropriate today. It takes place after his funeral, when the whole cast sings “American Pie” to Zoey.

This weekend a good friend passed away, after a long and hard-fought battle with cancer. I haven’t seen Matt in many years now. He was Paul’s (my first husband) best friend and he was in our wedding (he’s the guy in the middle in this photo). He had two children from his first marriage and later remarried someone that I’ve become friends with through social media even though we’ve never met. Today I’m thinking about Meg and those kids, fairly certain I know how they’re feeling.

I was looking for pictures of him to send along to his family and the only ones I’ve been able to find have been from my wedding. I know I had many pictures that I took at all the basketball games and activities that we attended together as a group and as part of our basketball booster club. I don’t know what happened to all these photos. But I found many references to him in my old journals. He teased me about not dating any of the guys in the club not realizing that was only because none of them had asked!

He was always there for Paul when he needed help, and he was there for me as well. There was one particular Halloween weekend in 1987 when everything that could go wrong did go wrong. Paul was house-sitting and Matt and I were keeping him company. As soon as we walked in both the cat and dog ran out. Later, the toilet flooded, Matt’s bed broke, and then Paul had some car trouble. I believe Matt may have been on crutches at the time so when the pets escaped all he could was watch as Paul and I tried to round them up. I managed to scoop up the cat and the dog eventually found his way home. But poor Paul was a basket case. He was the guy that was supposed to be making sure everything was OK at the house. I don’t remember whose house it was. But through it all Matt was calm, reassuring Paul that everything would be all right. And of course in the end everything was.

Rest in peace, Matt. Ask my dad to play something for you. 🤍