My Dad and Music

My Dad loved music.  When I tried to describe my Dad to Rob once I settled on Hippie Cowboy.  Cowboy because he always wore cowboy boots and Hippie because he loved folk music from the 60's and 70's.  And he always seemed really liberal for a republican. His favorite singer was Joan Baez but he also loved Peter, Paul and Mary.  Simon and Garfunkel were up there too.  I grew up listening to Puff the Magic Dragon, Where have all the flowers gone, The Sound of Silence, Scarborough Fair, all the greats.   We had a record player and I remember my Dad every once and a while would  turn on Joan Baez and zone out.

My Dad played the trumpet and the harmonica.  He learned the trumpet in school and taught himself the harmonica.  I have a memory from when I was little of my Dad and Grandma playing Blue Moon.  My Dad on the trumpet and Grandma on the piano.  The Harmonica was my favorite though.  My Dad would sit on the front porch swing in the evening when it was warm enough and play his harmonica.  He would play songs that he already figured out and sometimes he would take requests and try to figure out new songs.

When I was a freshman in high school my Dad started to notice that he couldn't hear very well.  When he was a child he had Bells Palsy and lost the hearing in his right ear.  Now he was having a hard time with his left ear.  He saw some specialists and they discovered a tumor growing around the Cochlea of his left ear.  The tumor had to be removed.  There was a slight chance that it could be taken out without hurting or taking out the cochlea but more than likely my Dad was going to loose his hearing.  He practiced every night for three months learning how to lip read and then he had the surgery.  The tumor had grown into the cochlea and it was taken out too.

 I know that loosing his hearing was devastating for my Dad.  He couldn't hear his grandchildren.  He couldn't listen to Joan Baez or Peter Paul and Mary.  He couldn't hear his harmonica or trumpet. It didn't weaken his faith that he had a loving Father in Heaven though.  He wrote an essay called The Miracles that Didn't Happen.  He talked mostly about friends that lived their lives with some kind of disability.  He looked up to them and recognized the spiritual strength their trials had given them.

We saw miracles as a family.  My Dad never regained his hearing completely but doctors did discover a bit of hearing in his right ear.  He wore a hearing aid  that helped him understand others better.  He was able to go to college later in life.  Something that he had always wanted but thought was well out of his reach.  Once I had bought a CD of Peter Paul and Mary.  My Dad was excited that I liked the music.  I am not sure what made him try it but he turned up his hearing aid and put some headphones on to listen.  We were all startled when my Dad excitedly shouted that he could hear it.  He listened to Blowin' in the Wind and said he could hear the entire song.  He couldn't hear any of the other songs on the CD and I am not sure he could ever hear Blowin' in the Wind again but for one brief moment he could hear Peter Paul and Mary and he loved it.   

For a week before my Dad died he was in the hospital in a coma.  In that time he was given many priesthood blessings.  I remember that they all talked about him being able to do all the things he loved again.  At the time I wasn't willing to let him go and I wondered how a heart attack would allow my Dad to have his hearing again.  Now that he is gone I understand.  His Father in Heaven gave him the blessing of hearing his family again.  Many of us have had experiences since his death that have confirmed to us that he is still here helping his family.  I have nieces that play the piano.  I got to go to their final recitals and I thought how my Dad must be listening too and loving it.