I learned today that someone of stature in the music world lost a fight with a brain hemorrhage. The voice that carried me through so many dark days is singing a lullabye to her daugher, Valerie Rose, in heaven. Together again, best friends.
Phoebe Snow became the sound track of my life the first time I ever heard her dulcet tones. Her voice filled my head the instant I heard her sing "Poetry Man." (another story, another time.) Her lyrics sang my stories.
Ms. Snow, in the midst of her overnight sensationalism, gave birth to a tiny girl, who, somehow, in the havoc of delivery, lost her oxygen supply, causing the irreparable damage that is Cerebral Palsy. Valerie would never speak,never walk, never see. But her Mama (God rest her, finally)saw enough for the two of them.
Phoebe was advised to commit her daughter to an institution, by many learned people. She was advised by business managers that her career would become non-existent.She in turn, advised THEM, that her career had just begun. God had a much higher calling in mind.
And so it began, the journey those two highwaymen would travel together. Valerie grew into a beautiful person, a face like an angel &, evidently, an interest in opera.It was that sound that finally gave Valerie Rose her focus. Her mother, naturally, delved into that genre, just for her daughter's delight & amusement.
Valerie lived to be thirty-one, then died of her own brain hemmorhage. Phoebe, according to her BFF, Linda Rondstadt, was, understandably, inconsolable.
But, after all those years, she came back, she traveled, she sang her daughters praises and other tales, at small venues around the country.
I got tickets everytime she graced us with her presence.
Phoebe, you were the background sound that kept my son & I going strong when I thought for sure, we couldn't.
"We'll celebrate it, when we've made it,I'll jump over your yard....I'll jump all over .."
You made it, lady, & we're jumpin'
Much love & many thanks,
from Ian's mom.
1 comment:
that was Truly Beautiful. . . .oh how I wish with all my heart that she could have read that while she was alive. . .so she would have been able to know how much her life affected and inspired yours
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