When we were making funeral arrangements the other day, the funeral director asked us if we wanted to bring in some of Ron’s favourite music to play in the background. I immediately thought of the Beatles. He loved the Beatles and had all their CD’s. He would play them every Sunday. E.V.E.R.Y. S.U.N.D.A.Y! It wouldn’t have been so bad if he just played Help and Rubber Soul – my two favourites, but no. He was very methodical and started at their first album and played them through in order - every Sunday. Even if he had hit random it might not have been quite so…….predictable. After about 3 months of this I asked if maybe he could play something different just once in a while. But when Serge came over yesterday, he reminded me of when we all used to listen to Al Stewart’s Year of the Cat and Time Passages



I thought that was even better. There were six of us that used to hang out a lot together when we were young; Serge and Marg, another couple Paul and Anne and Ron and I. We used to get together every weekend and Al Stewart was always on the record player. I think all three couples owned their own copies. We all liked his music but I think Ron liked it best. I remember a few years ago when he noticed the albums came out on CD he rushed to the store about 9:00 at night to get them and was so excited that he had them again – Record players and albums had long gone out of style. Gerry Rafferty was another artist we listened to a lot.

And another one of my favourites was Chris De Burgh. Ron liked him too; Spanish Train and Crusade were our favourite albums.

I put the CD’s on later in the day and played the Al Stewart CD’s and the memories just started to flow. I don’t think a night went by when we were all together that we didn’t listen to these CD’s over and over. As I listened to it today, again the tears began to flow. One thing I did note though is how timeless his music is. It’s perfect to play in the background at his funeral. When we were discussing what music to bring before I was reminded of Al Stewart, I couldn’t help but say with a laugh that Help might be a bit inappropriate or Maxwell’s Silver Hammer.

Paul and Anne and Ron and I seemed to get together the most. We would get ourselves in a somewhat altered state and play canasta . For the life of me I don’t remember how to play it anymore, but we would play it for hours and hours on end; Ron and Paul against Anne and I, and listen to Al Stewart.

Another thing Ron and I would do sounds a bit nuts as I write it. I haven’t seen these for years, but back then you could buy these large sized outlines of different scenes such as hot air balloons and butterflys and other things like that. The kits also included coloured felt markers and you would fill in the outlines with whatever struck your fancy. We would spend hours together letting our imaginations soar with our unique talents. (This is a less nutty way of saying we coloured together) Then we would hang the finished pictures on the walls. I wish I knew where they disappeared to as we were quite talented. We were also quite mad for Lord of the Rings books and both read them a number of times and every year we would buy the gorgeous calendars that came out. At the end of the year we would pick out the best illustrations and Ron would frame them. When the Lord of the Rings trilogy came out, we were ecstatic and since they came out around Ron’s birthday, for three years in a row, it was a special birthday for both of us. We also made a small addition to our family. I had always had a cat when I was growing up and wanted one of my own. Ron wasn’t allowed to have pets but he also really liked cats and had always wanted one so he readily agreed. At that time he became the official pet namer and we got Char, our first cat.

While for the most part things were wonderful between us, every so often Ron would get these rather dark moods where he wouldn’t talk to me for a few days. While it bothered me, at the same time I managed to shrug them off and when he got over them, things would be wonderful between us again.

After living in a very small apartment with no halls and a single bed for three years, we had saved enough money for a down payment on a condominium and the next phase of our life was about to begin.

to be continued