
Andrew Thomas McMillan
This Sunday is Father’s Day in the USA.
My father (pictured above) died a year and a half ago.
He was a loving man who sang to me and my siblings at bedtime when we were young.
He didn’t teach me much about business or money — unless it was to inspire me to make different decisions than he did regarding concepts like saving…
But he was always willing to talk and listen.
At one point when he needed to stop driving, sell a trailer home he owned which was costing him money, and do some strategic planning regarding his declining health, two of my siblings and I and he met with a mediator.
It was not easy or fun to meet with a mediator, but we emerged with an agreed-upon list of things that needed to be accomplished.
And bless him, he accomplished everything on the list (with significant help from my older sister, with whom he lived for many years…)
As his health declined and he became less and less mobile, the sweetest way to spend time with him was sitting by his bed and playing the ukulele.
He loved to sing — even when his face was more and more disfigured by the cancer which eventually wore him out — and knew lots of standards from the 1920s – 1970s.
The wonderful team of David Shire (composer) and Richard Maltby, Jr. (lyricist) wrote a song called “If I Sing” which always touches my heart.
It was inspired by a visit which David Shire made to his father who was living in a retirement community/nursing home.
When I perform “If I Sing,” I am very grateful that my dad shared his love of music with me.
And I think of several male voice teachers who have nurtured me over the past couple of decades.
And I think of my step father, who was a professional flautist for many years — and is now a passionate music educator who loves his students and continues to teach in his 80s.
A heartful Father’s Day to you, dear reader.
I am well aware that not everyone is blessed with a loving and functional father — or even a father at all…
However, I hope you are able to feel grateful for something your dad — or a trustworthy male teacher, or minister, or rabbi, or mentor — has given you.
Thank you for reading and watching and listening to this blog post.
Thank you, too, to Maltby & Shire for writing such a terrific song.
And thank you to Mike Callahan — himself now an enthusiastic and loving father! — for creating this great orchestration, for inviting me to sing with the Timberlane pops orchestra, and for conducting the orchestra so tenderly and skillfully.
What a beautiful tribute Will. Never having met your father I think there is a lot of him in you. Did I ever thank you for Danny Boy on the shores of the Hudson for my dad’s sendoff. 💝
You DID thank me for our spontaneous Danny Boy on the shores of the Hudson… a beautiful send off for your dad’s ashes from a serendipitously discovered and perfectly private boat launch area! Thank you for reading and listening, Jane. As I think I shared during that weekend, I have very fond and grateful memories of your Dad.
Sending love 💜
I think of my strange father often. I loved him and we loved music and baseball.
Thanks Will. I’ll look up that song.
Maltby & Shire have written so many great songs about what it’s like being an adult — all the love and loss and longing and tradeoffs and disappointments and joys. THANK YOU for reading and listening, dear man. I remember how much you love your son, too… Deep breath in. Deep breath out.
A beautiful song and tribute to your father, Will… A song I will add to my playlist …It is the first time I have heard this song and I loved it 🙂
They have written SO MANY great songs, Carol. Definitely worth exploring their creative output… Thank you for making time to listen and read!
I enjoyed it Will it was my pleasure 🙂
I find fathers’ day something of a trial since I lost my dad four years ago. Prior to that we never celebrated it – we never needed a special day for me to tell him that I loved him – but now I feel that his loss is being rammed down my throat with every email and advertisement telling me that I should buy some particular product or do some particular activity with my dad for fathers’ day. I really don’t need a special day to think about him – I do so every day. Although he was quite a serious man, he used to sing to me, often making up silly words to songs (“for every drop of rain that falls” he would sing “someone gets wet”) and he loved all sorts of music: big bands (which my mother hates), brass bands, operetta, Jim Reeves… a wide-ranging taste! Thank you for making me think of an aspect of him that I don’t often remember.
I love that song, and I love hearing you sing it.
You are a peach!!!!
A beautiful tribute to your father (and the other men in your life). Lovely song/performance, Will.
Thank you for making time to read and listen. I needed to post something more uplifting than my last depressing/sobering blog entry…
Wow, Will–this is so moving and beautifully sung! I didn’t know the song but I love it, and I love the love that is at the heart of it. Gives me chills!
Hurrah for the galvanic skin response aka chills! That is a high compliment!!! Chills is often how my body responds when I hear people making music who are very connected to the present moment and to the emotion of a particular song or piece of music. Thank you, as always, for making time to read and listen, oh woman of the loom…
I love the image of you sitting at your dad’s bedside playing the ukulele. Very special. Thank you
Thank you for reading and listening and leaving a comment, Alex! I hope the ukulele is still part of your life. If I am remembering correctly, ukulele is how we first connected via WordPress, yes?
Yes, I still enjoy playing the ukulele
Hurrah!
A beautiful tribute to fathers and mentors, Will. I was blessed with a father who read to us books, comics and shared thoughts with us.
There is a blog I love to follow written by a nursery school teacher, and so much of what her children learn is sparked by having been read aloud to — by teachers, by parents, by friends, etc. Hurrah that your dad shared this vital skill/gift/tool with you and your siblings!