Percy Sledge died yesterday. With his death another piece of the puzzle called our life took its final place.
It was 1966, Tommy and I were beginning to fall in love with each other. It was a long, slow process; filled with all sorts of obstacles. Neither of us were ready, by any means, to fall in love. That fact did not stop one thing. Like most head on collisions it was unavoidable, so was our fate. Sooner or later, we were meant to be together.
As teenagers Tommy and I danced many times to Percy Sledge's song, "When a Man Loves a Woman". It was really 'our song', however in hindsight, the song was about a woman who broke her man's heart when she left him for someone else...like that would ever happen. At the time it was the words 'when a man loves a woman' that had us from the first time we heard it. Even today when we hear it on the radio, we look at each other and smile. One of us will say, "Do you remember that?" and the other one will grin and say "Of course I do". On more than one occasion we have stopped what we were doing and danced to the old memories. I wish we did this more often.
We went to prom together that year. I was 17 and he was 18. I wore the prettiest white gown. When Tommy walked me out to his car he said, "You look beautiful...like a bride". I smiled thinking, 'keep that thought'...and he did. Things went along good until it was time for school to start in the fall. We were going into our senior year. My life at home was rocky at best. My father made it impossible for me to even want to date. I would be ready to puke before Tommy came to pick me up. It was easier to break up and hope things would work out for us later, than it was to walk out my front door and spend an evening with Tommy...then come back home.
We needed to be apart. We both needed to grow up. He wanted to join the Marines and I wanted to go to college. We both got what we wanted. It would be two years before we saw or spoke to each other. When we did we were 20 and 21 and no one could stop us then. Tommy called me one evening when he was in on leave from the Marine Corps. We went out that night. I think it was July, we went to the fair in Union City and never went inside the gates. We talked for hours. We were married six months later on December 26,1969. We lived a good love story.
Early this morning I listened to Percy Sledge, once again, sing some of my favorite memories. "Warm and Tender Love" and "When a Man Loves a Woman". Percy Sledge pretty much sang our unwritten lives at that time. In fact, I could write our life together in song titles. There was always at least one song that nailed what was going on in our lives.
Music can be a universal lover, filling in the blanks of an ordinary life, soothing an aching heart, mending a troubled mind, or acknowledging a hidden need. Music is ointment for the soul; heard through our mind's eye and nestled in the heart.
Thank you Percy Sledge for singing the songs of our youth. Rest in peace...you made one couple very happy and we will never forget you or your love songs.
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