A happy Ashleigh on Christmas morning 1988.Tonight I spent an evening with Michael McLean. Well, me and a couple of thousand other people at The Forgotten Carols. It is interesting to note that this is the 20th anniversary tour of The Forgotten Carols , just like it is Ashleigh's "20th anniversary" this year as well. I share this experience on this blog and not my other, because when I think of Michael McLean's music... I think of Ashleigh.
My first memories of Michael's music are from the early days of Ashleigh's illness. I somehow accumulated a cassette tape of Michael's songs, which I listened to in the car as Ashleigh and I drove to and from radiation therapy on a daily basis. In Ashleigh's final weeks, her home health care nurse loaned me a video tape of Michael performing some of those same songs. I watched that video every day. The final song on that tape is Together Forever during which he asks the audience to think of someone they love who was not with them, and then invites the audience to sing along to the phrase, "... we can be together forever someday..." and then with more conviction, "... we will be together forever someday...". As a young mother whose heart was breaking, and with so much uncertainty ahead of me, I bravely sang along with Michael and his audience as tears rolled down my face. Tonight at the conclusion of The Forgotten Carols, Michael sang Together Forever , and again, invited his audience to think of a loved one who wasn't with them and invited us to sing along. The words, "... we can be together forever someday..." filled the auditorium as did the spirit. My heart was touched and my eyes filled with tears, as I sang those words with conviction, because I know that they are true, "... we will be together forever one day...".
