Friday, April 22, 2016

"I Only Want to Hear you Laughing in the Purple Rain"







I got to work yesterday morning and I had no sooner settle in than I received a phone call from my daughter.."Mom, are you sitting down?" I heard her trembling voice say.  I immediately braced my self for something horrible, like you do when someone asks you that question.  "What's wrong" I wanted to say "who died" like my grandmother always asked.  She knew how to get to the point.  I don't always like to assume, but sometimes you just have to accept the facts.  "Mom, they found Prince dead at his Paisley Park compound" "what?!" I said quietly but firmly, as I was quickly recalling the last time I had a call like this from my daughter.  It was when Michael Jackson died..receiving that news caused something in my heart to break, literally.  I honestly could not move for at least a minute.  It doesn't sound like a long time, but it can be eternity.









 And now the sensation was returning to my body that I remembered from 7 years ago.  Except this time, I felt as though life itself had been drained from my very being.  "Lisa," I said, "did you check?" and before I could utter another word, she said abruptly "YES!, it came from TMZ Mom, they are reporting this" I dropped several F bombs and just kept repeating  the word shit over and over..not wanting it to be true, not ready to lose another musical icon, hero, inspiration" I could barely utter the next few words "what happened?"  All my daughter could do was talk through her tears, and we all know that is pretty much impossible to comprehend, sometimes even for Moms.  "its okay honey" I said, I will go online and get some info" "are you going to be okay" I muttered quietly.  "NO" she replied rapidly and hotly" as if I should know better. But then she regrouped and asked if I was going to be okay.  My kids know their Mom, they know my love of music, my musical loves and my love of the 80s and Prince was all of those rolled into one.  I actually was blessed to see him not to long ago in Seattle at the Key Arena, thanks to my eldest son, he bought the tickets for me for my birthday that year. I really enjoyed the concert tremendously Prince was truly amazing, and he had the audience wrapped around his finger so deftly and exquisitely it was like we were a band of gold that he proudly displayed to the world.  And we were loving every minute of it.



All day yesterday I listened to MPR  Minnesota Public Radio, The Current, play the entire catalog of Prince.  If you are familiar with YouTube, you are not going to get a whole lot of Prince songs to add to a playlist and if you have the entire catalog in your possession you are a lucky individual.  I didn't have any of that with me at work.  I have somethings, mostly 80s stuff, but I have his Musicology album too and I really liked that.   All day long, I was engrossed in remembering and coming to grips with the reality that Prince Rogers Nelson had suddenly and abruptly left this mortal coil, leaving his loved ones and fans to mourn and try to heal our broken and devastated hearts




So today is #Purple Friday.  Last night the entire world dressed up its finest edifices in purple to celebrate and remember The Purple One.  I am wearing my purple today and a tiny umbrella pin to symbolically catch, the Purple Rain that are my tears for him.  His music will always inspire, his romanticism will always make women swoon and men want to have what he had.  His life was lived to the fullest and for his fans as one of his last acts here on earth was to do a concert the night before he died, because he didn't want to disappoint them. 



I want you all where ever you are today, hug someone you love, tell them you love them and wish them all the happiness in the world, because you just never know from one minute to the next. I love you all, big hugs for everyone reading this blog and I wish you all the happiness and love in the world.





"Sometimes it Snows in April, sometimes I feel so bad, sometimes I wish, that life was never ending, but all good things they say, never last.  Love isn't love til it's passed."


Rest In Peace