On December 10, the three members of our family still at home sang with our community choir parts from Handel’s Messiah. We’ve done this now for five years, our oldest daughter pulling us into it, our youngest continuing the tradition. We practice on Sundays, for a few weeks, have a dress rehearsal, and finally the finished product.

With our family, the busyness of the seasons always leads to us missing a practice or two, and this year was no different. Our daughter and I missed the dress rehearsal due to stuff we’d scheduled earlier, and my wife and I missed for another previous engagement. The problem, we’ve sung this enough, we are comfortable with the music. Comfortable with the music? We are on stage for two hours, singing 10 different pieces.  This is a marathon piece, and while difficult, it’s a lot of fun to sing! It’s like riding a bike. You start practicing, and away you go!

But, I’m drifting from my point.

#asusual

My daughter, Faith, 5’2″, the short little thing, has lungs that dwarf her physical size many times over. We knew there was something different about her ,when, as a new born, she could be heard crying down the hallway in nursery. Then, within 10 minutes of us noticing her cry, the nurse brought her down to us, tell us she was “disturbing the other babies”. While her cry has softened a bit, her boisterous, outgoing personality has only grown!

#LoudbabyFaith

Not only has her personality grown, but so has her voice. Faith’s always been a talented singer, and has gradually gained some recognition for her abilities. She’s sang with our Messiah group for all four years in high school, and each year, she’s asked the conductor (her high school music teacher) if she could have solo, which she was then told, “No, Faith, you may have a solo as a senior.”

#inserteyerollandsigh

Well, you know she wasn’t going to miss this year’s Messiah and as she walked in, her director said, “Let’s find you your solo, Faith,” with a smile on his face. So, I’d not heard her sing as I was gone for our dress rehearsal, and the story behind her practice is a good one. Faith was taking the ACT that day, and had to really rush to make it to practice. The choir was just breaking up as she walked in, and the director had everyone wait so she could sing. So here’s my daughter, nervous from the ACT, nervous about being late, and boom, she’s up singing. I guess she did pretty well, because community members she’d never met came up and complimented her and how poised she was, singing with no warm up, looking calm and collected (not my daughter by any means).

So, I get to hear her the next night, and wow. I was blown away with the maturity level of her voice. She’s grown so much as a singer that I cannot even begin to describe the change. I teared up for that reason, my wife for another. According to my wife, Faith’s singing sounded very much like her mom sounded when she sang, to which I just about lost it. Melissa’s mom has been gone for over a decade, and everyone once and a while, something comes up that just gives us that friendly reminder of how much both she and Don meant to Melissa and I. This was one of those things.

As my wife posted Faith’s video on Facebook, many of her relatives echoed what Melissa had said: Pat would have loved to hear Faith sing because they sounded so similar.

#cancersucks

I’ve got a link to my wife’s Facebook page here. I’m not sure how locked down her page is, so in the comments, if it’s not working, just let me know. Otherwise, enjoy and thank you for being part of my slice today! 🙂