2001. Outside the inn in Newport, Rhode Island where Pam was working. She is hugging our nephew Billy and one of the Irish girls. With Mum and Dad and that's me behind them.
I remember sky is a song I used to sing when I was an actress going for auditions for musicals. “I remember sky. It was blue as ink, or at least I think I remember sky.” It makes me feel like crying. Like now here I am today finding life a pain in the ass because my back is aching like mad, it’s really dragging me down. How can I be so misery-ish when I’ve lost you Pam? I’m sorry. You probably think, “Well girl enjoy life, you are alive and I’m not!” Or perhaps you are thinking, “Actually I’m frigging glad it’s over and I don’t have to suffer backache like you today ha ha!” Well, which one is it Pam? I wish you could tell me now. It’s such a bore when I’m ill, it makes me very serious and at a loss as to how to respond to it. I looked at myself in the mirror and I said, “You don’t know what to do to look after yourself when you’re ill do you?” And the answer was no.
I remember sky is a song I used to sing when I was an actress going for auditions for musicals. “I remember sky. It was blue as ink, or at least I think I remember sky.” It makes me feel like crying. Like now here I am today finding life a pain in the ass because my back is aching like mad, it’s really dragging me down. How can I be so misery-ish when I’ve lost you Pam? I’m sorry. You probably think, “Well girl enjoy life, you are alive and I’m not!” Or perhaps you are thinking, “Actually I’m frigging glad it’s over and I don’t have to suffer backache like you today ha ha!” Well, which one is it Pam? I wish you could tell me now. It’s such a bore when I’m ill, it makes me very serious and at a loss as to how to respond to it. I looked at myself in the mirror and I said, “You don’t know what to do to look after yourself when you’re ill do you?” And the answer was no.
I finally lay on the tile
floor with the dogs and tried to be a dog. I lay next to Paako and I lifted his paw onto me. Anyway I got bored being a dog.
I remember being able to call
you Pam when I felt like this and tell you about my funk and then you could do
the same with me. I remember that
was before we started working on our codependence and then we thought we
couldn’t do it anymore. But
sometimes when things got really bad we would. Like when I first started dating Ron and he didn’t call me
that day and I went into a pit of horror I called you and you said, “no Jane I
don’t think I should do another tarot card reading for you because I’ve just done
one and it said everything was great.
Why don’t you just feel your feelings instead?” And I did. And then the next morning when I called
you again to tell you I was still in a state you said to keep on feeling those
feelings Jane!
But I haven’t been able to
feel my feelings lately. I feel
cold inside. Perhaps if I could
call you, you would know what to say to me. I think you knew me better than I knew myself. I want to remember and I don’t want to,
it hurts too much. That is the
problem you see Pam. I don’t
remember the details and that’s what bothers me. Oh I remember the room at the inn and the kitchen down below where you
used to bake your little muffins.
The flat upstairs which was so cozy and you letting me come and stay
there with you even though it was too small. I remember reading a book that I found in that little new
age bookshop about Jane Roberts and Seth.
And we cycled around Ocean Drive me talking like the Irish girls who also worked at the inn and you laughed. I kept calling you Dervla, do it again you kept shouting, do it again! And you laughed and laughed. You watched me cry because I was so
upset about men and you saw me get drunk out of my head that night and throw
myself at that man who owned a boat called the Pearl Necklace. You were right there by my side Pam, my
sister all the way. Right up until
the end. I remember the problems
you had too and the way we would talk and talk about all the problems and the
dysfunction and when we went home that Christmas your face looking at me as if
to say what are you doing this for?
When I was singing those carols so loudly and acting out like an
angry daughter. You looked at me
with disapproval I remember, you keeping a lid on it. Sitting there in a grey cardigan keeping a lid on it. Letting it all run on.
And the film below is me singing the song...
These images you share are vivid and heart wrenching.
ReplyDeleteWhat is beautiful about this post, and your blog, is that Pam is you now, and you can ask yourself what you want to ask her. And the answers are still there, just like she said.
Thank you for this youtube, which is just tremendous. I did not know the song (I see I have much to learn from your performance background), and this fellow's rendering is just gorgeous.
Ruth..how beautifully put. Thanks. And isn't it a gorgeous song? I intend to podcast myself singing it to replace this youtube version sometime...
ReplyDeleteOr add to it!
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