Our Song

Lou loved London. Everyone who knows (knew) Lou knows that he loved London. He visited London over twenty five times last he counted. He told me the first time he set foot in London he had a very strong feeling that he had been there before, that he belonged there. He did. Everything about London, particularly "back then" was so "Lou". Proper. Traditional. Historical. Masculine (as opposed to Paris, which Lou felt was definitely feminine). He loved the theater, the parks, the royalty, the museums, the restaurants, the cabs, the shopping, the Thames, Big Ben, and on and on. He also loved sharing London with us. He took Drew there for a special trip. He took us all there for a great family trip. And of course, he took me there, a few times. The very first time he took me to London, we saw the play CATS. I think it was the original, first run of CATS. We didn't know much about it when we went, it hadn't been out that long. It was wonderful. It was magical to see it in London. To see it in London, with Lou, was magical. There is a very special song in CATS, a hauntingly beautiful song. It is a solo, sung in the dark, with a single spotlight. I think it comes at the end. It's a very melancholy, sad song, and it spoke to Lou. Something in that song got to him. As the last note drifted into silence, I turned to Lou, and found he was in tears. He was so moved by that song. It became "our song". Lou would request it, and ask me to dance, no matter where we might be. We danced to that song at black tie affairs, at piano bars in hotel lobbies, at restaurants throughout the world. If there was a pianist or band, Lou would request it. And we would dance, no matter if we were the only people dancing. No matter if there wasn't a dance floor. We danced. We danced to our song. And the name of it is "MEMORY". The song that affected Lou so deeply, so long ago, long before the brain tumor, was titled "Memory". I think about this alot. I think about the fact that Lou lost the ability to retain new information from the brain tumor. That he lost his immediate memory. And I think about this song. How is it that THIS would be the song that became "ours". Why not something else we liked, why not Stevie Wonder's "You Are The Sunshine Of My Life", which was the hit of the day and certainly danceable. Why MEMORY? I think of Lou, in the dark of the theater, with tears streaming down his cheeks. Did he know ? Did he know, in his heart, so long ago, that something would happen to him like this? Is that why he was affected so deeply by this song? These questions haunt me, like the song itself. Dancing with Lou, to MEMORY, a memory, now............. LYRICS TO "MEMORY", from CATS ......... Daylight See the dew on the sunflower And a rose that is fading Roses whither away Like the sunflower I yearn to turn my face to the dawn I am waiting for the day . . . Midnight Not a sound from the pavement Has the moon lost her memory? She is smiling alone In the lamplight The withered leaves collect at my feet And the wind begins to moan Memory All alone in the moonlight I can smile at the old days I was beautiful then I remember the time I knew what happiness was Let the memory live again Every streetlamp Seems to beat a fatalistic warning Someone mutters And the streetlamp gutters And soon it will be morning Daylight I must wait for the sunrise I must think of a new life And I musn't give in When the dawn comes Tonight will be a memory too And a new day will begin Burnt out ends of smoky days The stale cold smell of morning The streetlamp dies, another night is over Another day is dawning Touch me It's so easy to leave me All alone with the memory Of my days in the sun If you touch me You'll understand what happiness is Look A new day has begun