I am once again pleased to share an original Christmas song for the 2018 holiday season. The song was inspired by an op-ed I read several years ago. I have had it in the back of my mind to write this song. Several months ago I made it reality.
The op-ed was about our distant acquaintances at Christmas, people with whom our only contact might be the annual Christmas card. Well, what happens? We age. Someone goes into decline and could even die without us getting immediate word about it. Our friend's loved ones might not even know who we are. We're just a name tucked away in an address book.
So we write the card and it might not be answered at all. The op-ed writer recalled getting a belated response from a family member or spokesman for the old friend. The spokesman rather tersely informed of the health decline that had set in.
My 2018 Christmas song is called "I Write to You." It was recorded at the Nashville TN studio of Frank (Franklin) Michels. Thanks Frank. I invite you to listen to the song with this YouTube link. God bless and Merry Christmas.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6lh8afazKYs&t=5s
Brent Gulsvig of Gulsvig Productions, Starbuck, puts my songs on YouTube. If you have any media transfer work to be done, contact the Gulsvigs. They have a charming orange cat!
Brent recently did me a favor: tracking down the obituary for my grandfather Martin of Glenwood. The obit was actually something that was re-typed in 1940 as part of a WPA project. No way could I have found this on my own. I had never seen Martin's obit before. The original appeared in a publication called the Glenwood Herald, not the Pope County Tribune.
Why did we not have the obit in our possession before? I think Mom feared that Dad would find it distressful being reminded of the deaths of his parents. Dad was the kind of person who kept emotions bottled inside.
Martin and his wife Carrie both died too young, so I could never meet either. I have discovered they are both buried at Glenwood Lutheran Cemetery, a place I do not recall ever having visited. This next spring I certainly plan to visit and locate the graves. Martin and Carrie had five sons go through confirmation at Glenwood Lutheran Church. I'm thinking of going over to that church for Christmas Eve services. It would be nice for the Williams name to be there. My uncle Howard was a lifelong member and he died about 15 years ago. He and his wife Vi are buried at Glenwood Lutheran Cemetery too, most likely by Martin and Carrie.
Brent Gulsvig also located a photo of Martin and Carrie for me and emailed all this material.
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| Mom opens a present at Christmas |
The 2018 Christmas is the first for me being alone, as Mom passed away in April. She died as the result of breast cancer which had likely gone into the bone. The last time she had "labs" done, the doctor pointed to a number in bold face type and said "this could mean" (or "probably means") that the cancer has gone into the bone. He added: "We could do a bone scan but you might not want to know."
Actress Sondra Locke died recently as the result of breast cancer that had gotten into the bone. Locke had had a double mastectomy.
Mom said "no" to a mammogram until I finally pushed it. I made the appointment and then postponed it a week, because I went online and read a lot of skeptical stuff about mammograms. I was concerned that if Mom got cut open, that might be the beginning of the end. We as human beings cannot deny "the end" forever. We must capitulate, all of us.
Dr. Sam did an outstanding job operating on Mom and removed a lot of the cancer. I was put in a separate room and not allowed to consult. It was a judgment call, I'm sure, how aggressive the surgery should be. In the final analysis, I'm quite pleased with the medical approach through all of Mom's declining years. We love Dr. Sam and Dr. Barnstuble.
Mom made it to within six weeks of her 94th birthday. That's pretty good, I'll say.
I hope you enjoy my Christmas song for 2018. Would my father approve? Dad was a highly successful composer of music with professional credentials. He did not encourage me to develop this pursuit at all. So you might say I'm "on my own" and that's fine.
Addendum: You know what? I have never seen an obit for grandfather Andrew on my mother's side either. I have a theory here too: I only recently discovered that Andrew had a previous wife to my Grandma Hilda, and the first wife died in 1920 at the age of 46. Andrew re-married and began his family with three children with Hilda. Andrew was up in years for doing this, and was quite a bit older than Hilda. That first wife was named Johanek or Johanna. I only discovered this info when visiting the website for Evergreen Cemetery, Brainerd. Did Andrew have any children with Johanek? I'm not convinced he didn't. I discovered Andrew in the 1920 Census through the Ancestry website, with his named spelled "Olson" instead of the more precise "Ohlson." However, I am not a member of Ancestry and the public library no longer has a membership, so I can go no further at this point, unless I want to try their "free trial." I don't want to be pursued by them. Eventually I am going to try to do all it takes to fill out family info. I'm at the stage in life where this is important to me.
- Brian Williams - morris mn minnesota - bwilly73@yahoo.com
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| Martin and Carrie Williams of Glenwood MN |
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