Nightingales Singing Freedom

"I have a million nightingales on the branches of my heart singing freedom" - Mahmoud Darwish

I had only known Marlys since September, when choir started up at my new church.  And everyone told me, quietly, that she had cancer and lots of it.  So from the moment I was introduced to her, I knew and she knew she was dying.  She had been fighting for ten years trying to get free of it.

Our choir sings once a month, generally, at our church, and every time it was our week to sing, I would wonder, is this the last time Marlys will conduct us?  Sometimes she had to sit in a chair, or hold a hand to climb the two steps up to the stage.  But to Marlys, music was more than an escape from a painful reality, it was the very freedom she sought.  It was a million nightingales singing in her heart, and it made her free.   

Marlys told me at nearly every rehearsal that she loved my voice, and was so grateful for my presence.  This is a very good way to keep singers coming to a volunteer choir.  She gave me gifts of confidence and courage, even handing me a duet for our Christmas concert.  She would take me aside and ask me to sing louder, which has never happened to me before, as usually for the sake of blend I need to pipe down.  But Marlys wanted to hear my voice.

Marlys is the first person that Maeve has met who has died.  I'm grateful Maeve didn't know her well enough to ask about her, so I don't have to explain death to my bright little pipsqueak just yet.  But when Maeve met Marlys, I had volunteered to drive her to her last radiation appointment.  There was a lot of traffic that day, and it took us a long time to get where we were going.  

Maeve was impatient, and a little afraid of this strange woman in the front seat.  Towards the end of our drive, Marlys turned around and told Maeve that she and her mommy like to sing together, that singing makes us happy.  Just then, a duet version of "I Wonder as I Wander" came on my cd player, and Marlys and I sang along to it, in parts, very easily.   Maeve listened, amazed, as she had never heard anyone but me sing that song, and after that she seemed to understand why we sing together.  

Many things can transport a person to freedom, but for me, music will most likely always be my ticket there.  I sing with a volunteer, very amateur choir because the music of the soul isn't always perfect, but it's always freeing.   And now Marlys is free, forever, just like the nightingales.

 Here is Marlys directing us at our Christmas concert, as we sang John Rutter's Christmas Lullaby

And yes, you can see me singing, too.  I'm on the far right in front of the projector screen.