“Sometimes I’d like to hide away
Somewhere and lock the door
A single battle lost, but not the war”
“Bring On the Rain” - Jo Dee Messina

Growing up in Massachusetts is not typically a place to get exposure to country music, but redhead Jo Dee Messina latched onto fellow redheaded country artists Reba McEntire and The Judds at a young age, and it sent her down the country music road with her blossoming musical talent. She moved to Nashville after high school and worked a host of jobs while performing at area clubs, hoping to get seen by someone who could offer her a record deal. Tim McGraw, at this point early in his country music career, convinced his record label to take a shot on Messina.

She would hit big on her debut record with single “Heads Carolina, Tails California,” which peaked at No. 2 on country charts. “Bring on the Rain” was the fourth song from her third studio album. The timing of the single release potentially helped the success of the song, as the song was released on Sept. 10, 2001, and its lyrics about understanding that the tough things in life, the “rain” in the song, were only temporary and that there would be another, better day ahead resonated well with a post-9/11 listening audience.

The song, which features McGraw on backup vocals, would peak at No. 1 on country charts and received multiple award nominations for vocal event of the year, best country collaboration, and Messina was nominated for female vocalist of the year.

When I hear the song, I think about my grandpa.

Tuesday was 10 years since my grandfather passed, on the day that my wife and I were scheduled to leave on our honeymoon. We’d planned our honeymoon after our wedding the previous August to enjoy a long bus trip that would enable us to experience ten baseball games, a visit to Niagara Falls, multiple days as a tourist in New York City, visits to Washington, D.C. monuments, and other stops along the way.

Instead, my grandfather laid in hospice care as we prepared to take off, leaving me with a very torn heart - do I go on my honeymoon and potentially not be there for his passing and funeral or do I stay to be there? I lost a lot of sleep pondering the decision.

Roughly a month before he passed, I sat with him in the last visit that I got to chat with him before fluid filled his lungs, making any speaking impossible for him. I talked about my honeymoon plans, and he was completely enthralled with the baseball parks I was going to see. As he got tired from the talk, we began to talk about the dry spring and how that would affect crops. The last words I got from him before I left were, “Rain. We just need some rain.”

My grandfather was one of two very influential people in my love for baseball. He loved to watch ballgames, but he really instilled in me the love of the radio call of a baseball game. I have many memories of a baseball game on in the cab of a tractor or a pickup as I rode with him on the farm. Going to places like Wrigley Field, Yankee Stadium, and especially Fenway Park on my trip were significantly more exciting to him than a Broadway show or the Liberty Bell.

After that conversation, as well as some tough conversations with my father, we made the decision to go, even if it meant he’d pass while we were gone. Instead, I got a call early the morning we were going to leave, telling me that he was gone. I’d miss the funeral, but we were headed on our trip.

As life would have it, the game at Fenway was the same day as his funeral. Not only that, but it was a game between the Red Sox and my beloved Braves. As it did with every single game on the trip, rain fell, but that game and that day were by far the most overcast and consistently drizzling of the days. The drizzle allowed for a game to be played, but it definitely put an overcast sky over the day.

I don’t think it was a coincidence that the last words I heard from him were about the rain, and the trip we were talking about that day included rain at every ballpark we went to during the trip (interestingly enough, visits to the Statue of Liberty and Arlington Cemetery were very bright, sunshiney days, so there was something going on with the baseball!).

I was blessed to have all four of my grandparents at my wedding in my mid-thirties, but he was the first grandparent to pass away, ten years ago this past week. With the antique tractor show at the fairgrounds this weekend something that he loved to attend, it’s a reminder to cherish those memories.

As the song says, “Tomorrow’s another day/And I’m thirsty anyway/So bring on the rain.”
Happy Father’s Day to all those fathers, grandfathers, and men who have taken on the role of a father-figure in the life of someone. Thank you for enduring the “rain” of your role in shaping lives.

I think I’m going to go listen to a ballgame.