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Sing-along Café 2025-05-15

What an interesting evening we had! 

The plan was to sing songs from a Mother’s Day playlist, and we did end up with a lot of talking and singing about mothers. But, we started with my funeral playlist, or rather my “MyFuneral” playlist. Funerals were the first topic last night, apropos of some recent experiences. We talked about how they can be inspiring and celebratory, or not. We hope that ours will be wonderful. To that end, I started a playlist of songs to suggest to my children. I want to ease some of the burden of the planning that too often comes abruptly, suddenly, and while you’re feeling bereft and overwhelmed. I also have a “death binder” on my computer, a folder of important documents and information about what my preferences are for what is done when I die. This was inspired by a newsletter I signed up for in 2021 “Dying Kindness” by Cianna Stewart. (She now has a podcast.) 

My death planning is one of the many weird ways that I try to be a good mother. And, a theme in the Mother's Day playlists we saw was losing your mom, so it wasn’t off topic. Another theme in those playlists was a long happy marriage, forever. That’s not the case for many, many mothers. So, we talked about that too. There were some tears but also laughter and a very positive end-of-night song. Oh-oh-oh, oh-oh-oh-oh-oh! Oh, it feels so good to be alive.

I brought grapes for a lighter snack, but also brought banana almond muffins that I baked. We talked a lot while we sipped and nibbled, but still sang a lot of songs. 

Here are some of the things we listened to and sang along with:

  • I Hope You Dance by Lee Ann Womack
  • Mother by Sugarland
  • Mom and Good to Be Alive by Meghan Trainor
  • Everything I Own by Bread
  • You’re Still The One by Shania Twain
  • Supermarket Flowers by Ed Sheeran
  • Loves Me Like a Rock by Paul Simon
  • What’s Going On by Marvin Gaye
  • Somewhere Over the Rainbow/What a Wonderful World by Israel Kamakawiwo’ole 
  • Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing and All Creatures of Our God and King by JJ Heller
  • Gabriel’s Oboe from The Mission by Ennio Morricone, played by Yo-Yo Ma
  • Au Fond Du Temple Saint from the Pearl Fishers by Georges Bizet
  • Show Some Emotion by Joan Armatrading 
  • Shake Your Groove Thing by Peaches & Herb



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