Colleen
08-11-2008, 02:01 PM
I just read two pieces of news, back-to-back, each of which brought me to tears. The first was that a friend died last night after a valiant battle with breast cancer. I did not know her on a deeply personal level, but she impacted my life nonetheless. She was a gifted musician, a trained soprano, deeply committed to her Lord, her family, and the musical community.
We both sang each year in Handel's Messiah. Her voice was incomparable, angelic. When she opened her mouth and the notes poured forth, all around her were captivated. And as with every fine vocalist, she made it look effortless...even this past season, when she rallied from her illness to join us on stage once more and for what we all knew was the last time, sing the air for soprano, "I Know That My Redeemer Liveth". It gave me chills. It gave all of us chills. That performance was her parting gift to us. Her cancer ~ which she took on without today's standard treatments ~ was not to be denied and last night she left this world.
As she lay dying, a new life was brought forth and laid in Aubrey's arms. A precious son. One life ended, another just starting. No, nothing revelatory in that recognition of life's cycle. But it struck me, the juxtaposition of the two events. M's family holding her close, letting her go...at the very hour baby Caedmon is placed for the first time in his mother's arms.
I typed this while listening to soprano Lynne Dawson's rendering of the "Redeemer" aria. Just as she hit a high note, the Canadian Snowbirds precision flying team swooped past over my house ~ off into the wild blue yonder. What fitting scene and sound.
We both sang each year in Handel's Messiah. Her voice was incomparable, angelic. When she opened her mouth and the notes poured forth, all around her were captivated. And as with every fine vocalist, she made it look effortless...even this past season, when she rallied from her illness to join us on stage once more and for what we all knew was the last time, sing the air for soprano, "I Know That My Redeemer Liveth". It gave me chills. It gave all of us chills. That performance was her parting gift to us. Her cancer ~ which she took on without today's standard treatments ~ was not to be denied and last night she left this world.
As she lay dying, a new life was brought forth and laid in Aubrey's arms. A precious son. One life ended, another just starting. No, nothing revelatory in that recognition of life's cycle. But it struck me, the juxtaposition of the two events. M's family holding her close, letting her go...at the very hour baby Caedmon is placed for the first time in his mother's arms.
I typed this while listening to soprano Lynne Dawson's rendering of the "Redeemer" aria. Just as she hit a high note, the Canadian Snowbirds precision flying team swooped past over my house ~ off into the wild blue yonder. What fitting scene and sound.