Music, Death, & Sandra Dodd

If you drew those three thinking sticks, would you have a connection? more than one?

So far, I've got two...

It all starts with Sandra's love of most everything music, including the game: Encore. See, she'd love nothing more than to have a constant stream of players to engage her, so she figgered out how to do exactly that: Lyrics Game.
I can be counted on to play obscure Elton/Bernie lyrics and I like to toss around some other obscurities while I'm at it. Like Mary LaFleur; I think every mama should sing "I love you 100" to their babies ♥

One day in March, I was honored to have the following e-mail exchange:

I'm the son of the late Mary Lafleur. If you didn't know she passed away after a 5 year bout with breast cancer two years ago. I was 18 when she passed away and will never be the same after such a loss. I googled her name because yesterday was my birthday and I came across you writing her lyrics on a website I was unfamiliar with. I just wanted to know what effect my mother's music has had on your life, I can only hope it was positive. I'm the subject of I love you 100, and I can't listen to it without weeping uncontrollably. Don

We've met, then :)
I was pregnant with my daughter, Hannah, almost 13 years ago, when your mom brought you to her friend's house in Iowa for a little house concert. I'm sorry I don't remember the friend's name, she was a LLL leader and a midwife, who lived near a lake with her family (I think the husband was a park ranger?). I think the friend had three daughters.

Your mom's music will live in my heart *forever* - you were just a little guy and the I love you 100 song embarrassed you and you asked her not to sing it for us. I played it on the way home and wept with an overflowing heart of love.

It was the first song I played for my first child. It was the last song I whispered in her ear as she died at a mere 9.5.

It does bring me great comfort to imagine your mama singing to all those children on "the other side" I hope it does for you, too <3
~diana

I wept when I read what you wrote. The only sadness without compare in my life has been the passing of such a wonderful person as my mother. To know that I was not the only person so effected by her is a wonderful thing to know. I hope you help keep Mary's music alive for as long as you live.

Don

This was a Big Impact moment for me. I knew Mary's music had touched my heart and I wanted to share that effect with others; I had no idea the story in my heart would directly affect Mary's family ♥
Life went back to normal, after the initial glow of the contact. The game reverted to being a game, the impact of one contact was relegated to fluke status. At least in my conscious mind.
~♥~
Then I played a very special song for the word "Steel" - Hymen Made of Steel was written for me in 1987 by my friend, Maggie Fette.
Maggie also happens to be Hannah's Godmother and as she's Italian, you could call her Fragile.
When Hannah died, Maggie's family asked that I not tell her at that time, they were ill prepared to deal with the potential emotional fallout and I was unable to be there for her myself, obviously.
On our way home from Los Angeles, Hayden and I tried to contact our Bakersfield friends, to no avail, and resigned ourselves to sprinkling Hannah's ashes to the wind. We thought of Maggie and how Hannah's spirit could now visit her at home, unbeknownst to Maggie herself!
When Gramma Bunnie died on May 5, I had to tell Maggie. She was the one, afterall, who laid eyes on Gramma in 1986 and said, "You guys don't call her Bunnnie?! She's a Gramma Bunnie if I ever saw one!!" It just so happened to coincide with Gramma's, uh, rabbit-like reputation for physical intimacy and the timing of Eddie Murphy's Aunt Bunny falling down the stairs schtick. So we kept it secret for a while... then she overheard us, and immediately adopted it as her name! In her passing, I knew we'd be speaking Maggie's name.

found out , quiet by accident last month about hannah. damn. who the hell did you fuck with to bring such karma down upon you & yours...di you force feed Ghandi? kick john paul under the table....:0) i'm glad your still smiling (just flashed on your giggle)
honey, your still the Greatest & Bestest Fweind this sponge cake could ever hope to have-

you probably learned about Hannah because her ashes are now free-wheeling around Bakersfield!!! Me and the boy drove thru not long ago (with NO ONE'S phone numbers) and put her over panorama drive and edison highway and highland highschool... everywhere... so now you should read the hannahashes blog, she really IS everywhere!
I love you
And I'm still laughing :D
~diana :)

no, actually- I looked up maggie fette instead of margaret on google last month & came across something you posted about hyman made of steel...i then followed links and found a site dedicated to spreading her ashes all over the earth (i loved the apple) ...

No one I know would have thought of this way to ease Maggie into Hannah's new state of being! She got all the information, through the back door; a way I'd never foreseen ♥ and Exactly the way she should have found out ♥

~♥~
Thank you, once again, Sandra Dodd, for the space you create in the world; the space in which magic happens! I'm honored to be a-swirlin' in your vortex!