Tuesday, June 24, 2008

Weave Me the Sunshine


The windshield wipers on the VW Bug were cranking at full speed when I left my mom's house. It was June, 1972, and I'd given birth to our second baby two weeks earlier. Dee was in Fort Lewis, Washington, for a six-week ROTC summer camp during the last week of my pregnancy, so it was my folks who took me to the hospital, sat through the labor, and got the first peek at our son. Baby blues, as they were called then, hit hard. It was a lonely time.

The Viet Nam War was going full steam, and we anticipated that Dee's active duty would start in December. When he won the draft lottery a couple of years before, he had joined ROTC in order to finish school and enter the army as an officer. He was committed for at least a year in Viet Nam. The three weeks I'd just spent without him made our future look very bleak.

While I was in the hospital with my new baby, Dee called from Washington. He reported that he was also in the hospital in intensive care. After an asthma attack in a foxhole, he had stopped breathing, and had been rushed in an ambulance to the emergency room. I worried and wondered for several days before hearing from him again. I had no way to call him; in the days before email and cell phones we often just had to wait for news.

He was in the hospital for about ten days, and finally, that afternoon, he had called with a cryptic sound in his voice. "I'll be home tonight." No explanation of why he was being sent home three weeks early. "Can you pick me up at the airport at 8:00?" I tried to coax more out of him, but he just said not to worry.

I was cautiously thrilled. Between my every-four-hour feedings I decided to make the 80-mile round trip to clean up our little home and get it ready for Dee's return. As I drove, I prayed out loud about our future, hoping for hope and peace of mind.

Timp seen from BYU Library

After I said Amen I turned on the radio. I noticed that the rain had stopped. As I went around a bend, the mist faded, and the supernal sight of Mt. Timpanogus appeared in the sunlight, sparkling with a dusting of new snow on the peaks. Peter, Paul and Mary were singing a song I'd never heard before:


Weave, weave, weave me the sunshine out of the fallin' rain; Weave me the hope of a new tomorrow, and fill my cup again.

They sang this chorus over and over and over, and I could feel my cup filling. My gloomy worries left; the sun had literally come out. I didn't know what was ahead, but I knew we were in good hands. Peter Yarrow wrote, Weave me the hope of a new tomorrow. I've always considered that song an answer to a prayer.

More to come. . . .

Do you have a special song?




7 comments:

Ashlee said...

I'm dying to know the rest of the story! :0)
I have oodles of songs that move me in different ways. I love music. There are songs to fit every mood, or songs to get you out of your "mood". :0) The power of music is an amazing thing!

SydneyMin said...

"I Have Dreamed" from the King and I - the Sinatra version. We had it sung at our wedding and always make sure we dance to it when it's on the radio.

Tina said...

Wow, I want to know the rest!
It is so amazing how such small, simple things can really mean so very much.
"You say it best when you say nothing at all" is our song.
Keith Whitley, Alison Kraus

kenju said...

If I do, I've forgotten it, but I sure do like yours!

Anonymous said...

Marty,

Of all the shows in the World, another reader has also chosen a favorite song from The King and I.

Sydneymin loves " I Have Dreamed" and my favorite is "Hello, Young Lovers".

I cherish my song because Anna is saying to the young woman," I've had a love like yours, I've had a love of my own."

I am old now and very happy that I did have a turn at being madly, deliriously, in love.

I'll always enjoy listening to those lyrics because they remind me of that time in my life.

Sheri said...

Beautiful story! Tell us the rest.

With all the horrible news in the world today, I find myself singing, "I get all the news I need in the weather report", by Simon and Garfunkel. (Song: "The Only Living Boy in New York")

Anonymous said...

Have I told you lately how much I love your blog? I read every post.

I love "Weave me the Sunshine." It reminds me of my sister. She used to sing it.