My mother died in 1996. She was an alcoholic, and on November 7 that year, she fell down a flight of stairs while drunk, was in a coma for four days, and then died on the 11th. When I got the news that she had fallen, my flatmate rushed me to the train station in Chicago, and I just grabbed my Walkman tape cassette player with whatever tape happened to be in it, not sparing time to pick anything specific out, just so I could have music in my ears to drown out grief thoughts so I could keep it together until I got to the hospital in the far west suburbs. This tune happened to be on the cassette in the player, and I listened to it on repeat. "And I say it's okay if you never say goodbye..." On the same cassette was "Photograph" by Def Leppard, so that tune has also taken on some strange significance for me too.

Phoole 15 Feb 2014