Yesterday

Recently I heard the song “Yesterday” by the Beatles and I was moved to tears. The memory of the loss of my beloved grandmother washed over me and I knew exactly the moment in time and the place.  Quickly I  returned to a time when I was a young girl of 13.  I sensed that losing my grandmother would change my life, but I had no way of knowing how long it would take for me to understand it.

I remember being in in her apartment after the loss. I liked being near her things. She had been an organist in the Methodist church and she had a small electric organ. I sat done at her organ, not really knowing what would come out and out came the words and melody of “Yesterday.” I felt my way through it, not really knowing how to play it.  I loved her and music was the only way I could express that love.

Later many years I would remember this moment when I went from being a young girl to a young woman.  I remember perfectly her love for roses and her beautiful gardens. She was also an excellent baker, but a picky eater I was told. She loved baseball, but hated beer commercials, as she believed in temperance. When I look to the neighboring town of Ocean Grove–a Methodist camp revival town–I see the image of my grandmother, her devout religious activism and her love for camp meetings and music. She was fiercely independent, a walker and had a cat named Master. It took me a long time, but there it was – wrapped up in the gift of a song called “Yesterday.”