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On Sunday I visited a friend in the hospital. She has been in the ICU for weeks and I offered to give her a foot massage. While I worked on her feet and chatted with her husband I had this overwhelming feeling that I should offer to sing to her.
So I asked if she wanted me to sing. She has a tracheotomy, so she just nodded yes.
I started by singing a few Broadway favorites using accompanying tracks on my phone. After a few songs she mouthed something to me that I could not understand, but it was obvious she had a specific song she wanted me to sing.
She tried a couple times to convey to her husband what she wanted, finally we both realized she was asking for Love is Spoken Here.
Paul and I sang that song at her sons funeral eight years ago.
I quickly hooked into the hospitals wifi and found Mo Tabs you tube version to use as my accompaniment.
I started to sing and felt the Holy Spirit fall down on our heads like a flood.
As I sang the nurses came in to suck out her lungs. I asked if they wanted me to stop singing and they said, “no, keep going.”
So I sang along with the choir while my friend coughed and the nurses worked on her and then administered medication.
After the nurses left my friend mouthed, “Sing it Again”.
I felt tears begin to well up as emotions overflowed.
“You want me to sing it again?”
Nod.
K. So I rewound the player and gave it my all.
I have learned over the years that while I truly love to perform on stage and at other venues, it is in these service opportunities when I use my voice to invite the spirit that I am able to feel and experience the full joy of music.
I have sung at many funerals for elderly friends and most of the time, while there is a sadness and loss, the music is a blessing and a joy for me and hopefully the lives of those who hear.
Conversely I have sung at funerals for a few babies and small children and the mourning and overwhelm of these untimely early deaths makes it nearly impossible for me to sing.
As I sang Love is Spoken Here to my friends I just about choked with the overwhelming sensations running through my mind.
I sang a few more songs and then finished up with Oh Divine Redeemer, a song that I have been trying to perfect for over twenty-five years.
I have performed this song many times. But singing it on Sunday for my friends was the best I have ever performed it and again, the Holy Spirit poured down like rain from Heaven.
The lyrics to this amazing song were so fitting as the cry for help from Jesus Christ is put to music in the most dramatically striking way. I sang it quietly and earnestly while sitting in a chair massaging Lavender into the lung reflexes of her feet.
As I sang the last note Ashley closed her eyes and mouthed the word “Beautiful”.
I do not believe I have ever heard more thunderous applause for my singing than the silent word whispered by my dear friend during her dark night of the soul.
Her Mom reported on Facebook on Monday that she is doing markedly better. As much as I believe in massage and essential oils, I know the healing power of music is real.
During many, many overwhelming and difficult moments these past few years, when I did not know what to do to lift my spirits and ease deep emotional pain the Holy Spirit would remind me to SING!
It works
!
Jenny Marie Hatch
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