As a kid growing up in central Illinois, USA I never could have dreamed I’d end up living in the hills north of Melbourne, Australia making music, tending animals and a garden and marrying people – but here I am!
When I was in my mid twenties I met my Australian wife while she was visiting a friend in my home town of Normal, Illinois (yes, really). We fell madly in love and it wasn’t long before things were getting quite serious. We had just started living together and were beginning to make plans to get married. This was a difficult choice to make as we were from opposite sides of the world and important things needed to be considered.
One of my very best friends who had moved up to Chicago and started a family of his own had not yet met her despite our best efforts. One day, while chatting with him on the phone I insisted they speak to each other right then. Both she and he bemoaned my request but begrudgingly had a quick chat. I recall him telling her he liked her already for getting me to give up cigarettes but other than that they both just made some digs at me and had a laugh.
Not long after that, I received a late night phone call telling me that my friend had passed. He was only 26 and left a wife and two toddlers behind. I was devastated. My wife to be was by my side supporting me while I grieved for my friend. She was also dealing with immigration complexities and starting to plan our own wedding. The flower girl and ring bearer at our ceremony were his little ones and I remember touching his son’s head and crying as I wished Sam could have been there beside me.
As the wedding day approached I was trying to reconcile the happiness I was feeling about finding my true love with the feeling of loss I had for a very close friend. The starting of our life together had coincided with the ending of his and I couldn’t help but think about how much my wife to be really meant to me, and how much I would miss her if she were gone.
As songwriters do, I wrote a song to tell her how much I love her…to be more precise to tell her that my love for her was eternal. That song is “Here and After” and you can listen to an early recording of it here.
Many moons later, as a birthday present, my wife arranged for some of our musician friends to record a selection of songs I had written and this song was beautifully performed by close friend and talented writer in her own right, Kate Crowley. You can listen to that version here also.
