Honoring the lost, but not forgotten

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“I’ll take with me the memories
To be my sunshine after the rain”
- “It’s So Hard To Say Goodby to Yesterday” by Boyz II Men

When I was in high school, if you attended a handful of graduations, you were guaranteed to hear the above song at one or more of them. The word picture quoted is good, though, and for many remembering someone lost, it’s quite poignant.

Tomorrow morning, I’ll make the second trip out to my grandmother’s grave to deliver her flowers on our birthday.

For many years, I bought flowers for her and delivered them myself or had them delivered to her when I was living out of town on our shared birthday. She would predictably then call me to “chew me out,” telling me that I didn’t need to do that - but that the flowers were beautiful.

She and I would then set up when we would have our “birthday lunch” — in quotations because it often took place weeks or even months after our actual birthday, even though I would often see her 2-3 times in a week.

When she passed in January of 2020, it was very hard, though she was ready to go. I just wasn’t ready for a birthday without my birthday buddy.

Last year was tough without her, but I had a job to do, so I laid out her flowers and then spent the day working, covering the visit of South Dakota’s lone U.S. Representative to Huron.

In a way, I’m glad she’s missed the last 21 months. Yet, I still think of her often and miss our long chats about so many topics in life.

One of the the definite gifts that was passed from my grandmother to me was the love of music, along with a gift of singing.

In fact, one of the last things we were able to do together was when Grandma asked me to sing as she played the organ in church in July of 2019.

I was blessed to be able to be part of a number of choirs and musicals in my life, including one when I lived in Minnesota that some may say still inspires my hairdo.

The local school was putting on a production of “Annie” but they had no guys who had the voice/presence combination to pull off Oliver “Daddy” Warbucks.

The director was a member of the church at which I worked as a youth minister at the time, and she asked if I would consider assisting.

It was a great experience as I was able to mentor a number of youth and have the experience of a very good musical theater department that sent multiple youth on to college on scholarship.

A couple of years later, I received a call from someone from the Chanhassen Theater. They were putting on a production of Annie and needed someone to play the role of Oliver Warbucks. I had been highly recommended, and they wanted to offer me the role.

Sadly, I had just accepted a position in Huron and was about to move back to South Dakota, so I was unable to play the role.

While many are looking forward to hunting this weekend, I’ve made plans with my children that revolve around “Annie.”

The Miller community is putting together a production of the musical that will have showtimes Saturday at 7 p.m. as well as Sunday at 2 p.m. and 7 p.m.

The show is being done to honor the memory of a Miller resident who loved performing arts and was lost to this world much too young, and I can think of no better way to spend my birthday than honoring memories to begin and end the day.