8-12-09...TEARS FOR HAPPY
I used to go to Nursing homes and Senior citizen centers and sing for Birthdays or just any thing they asked me to do. I worked in Nursing Homes for more than 20 yrs. And wanted to do something for those lonely people.
One day I was singing How Beautiful Heaven must Be and noticed a little lady with tears just running down her face. This upset me badly. I was going to talk to her before I left but never got the chance.
The next time I was there this same little lady raised her hand and asked me to sing How Beautiful Heaven Must Be. I sure didn't want to do it because I was afraid it would upset her again. But she asked and I sang it. I looked at her crying again and it just about undone me. I was crying too.
When my program was over I made a beeline to this lady. She was little and slumped in her wheel chair. Her hair was snow white and styled nice. Her cheeks and lips were very lightly shaded with pink. She had big blue eyes that I expected to be sad. They were not sad they were sparkling and twinkling like a night star. I noticed she couldn't move her arms much and her hands were all gnarled and crooked. In those little hands she clutched on to something. She couldn't really talk very well but she made me understand that she wanted me to look at whatever it was she held in her hands.
I took the object in her hands and it was a card. The card was a funeral announcement like the ones they hand out at funerals. I read it and finally understood it was from her husbands funeral many years before. There on the card was a list of the songs that had been sung. The very first one was 'How Beautiful Heaven Must Be'. I was stunned and I told her how sorry I was but I didn't understand why she asked me to sing it. I told her that I didn't want to hurt her and that song evidently upset her when I sang it. She started shaking her head no and was giving me the sweetest smile through her tears.
I stayed with her for almost an hour and listened carefully to what she was trying to tell me. Seems the song was her husbands favorite and he had requested that she sing it at his funeral. She didn't think she could do it but she had promised him that she would. She did sing the song for him when he died and she was so thankful that she had been able to. She told me that her tears were tears for happy because when I sang the song she felt like she was doing it again for her husband.
I went there many more times and always sang that song and always cried tears for happy with her. One day I went and she wasn't there. I asked about her and she had died just that morning. Her Son was there and asked me if I would record the song and allow them to take it with them where she would be buried in another state. I was honored and happy to do it. I made a cassette right there that day as I sang that song one last time for that sweet little lady. I can't remember her name now. Oh how I wish I could. But I can see her little wrinkled face with the dancing sparkling eyes. And I can see those tears for happy on that face. I can also feel those tears for happy that are blurring my eyes as the tears roll down my cheeks. TEARS FOR HAPPY, GOOD TEARS!!!
