I know, this must be WAY out of the norm for me. That’s okay.
Firstly, let me give you a little backstory.
About a year after my dad died, my mom had an incredibly vivid dream. In this dream, my dad was standing near the top of our driveway, trying to get to my mom inside the house. In her dream, he was frustrated as he just wanted to talk to her, but she could not hear him, nor could he get closer to her.
Except, he couldn’t. He seemed stuck behind glass, or a mirror, she said.
It has always stuck with me. My folks’ love story was one of those furiously thorough and life-sustaining stories. They went through hell together, and made their own heaven. They loved each other, beyond life.
I’ve always wondered about that dream. I cannot claim that is was a message from my dad, to my mom, from the afterlife, even though sentimentality would like me to. I cannot claim that it was my mom’s grief at not having my dad near here anymore, or that she wanted so desperately to be able to speak to him that it manifested itself in her dreams. I can wish some of these things true, but the only reality is this – their love was so strong, it did supercede all weird boundaries. Theirs is the love story that made me, my siblings and the generations beyond us.
Fast forward to today. I hear this song on the radio, find it catchy and start singing along.
I do a quick search on the lyrics and something hits me straight in the face. This line:
“Just put your hand on the glass
I’ll be tryin’ to pull you through
You just gotta be strong…
If you ever feel alone and
The glare makes me hard to find
Just know that I’m always
Parallel on the other side…”
Which was when I played the video. And burst into tears at my desk.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uuZE_IRwLNI]
If there ever was something that summed up my folks, and that space in life, where my dad died and my mother grieved, this is it.
Justin Timberlake, you don’t know me.
But, you sure understood something I couldn’t find the words to illustrate. Thank you.