You’ve Got Friends!
Estimated reading time: 2 minutes, 48 seconds
Carole King
Beautiful the
Carole King Musical
As we raced into the darkness below the Hudson, I held her hand and kissed her lightly on her lips. We had planned this weekend trip before knowing Jan had blood cancer, and that news was still the elephant in the room.
Two years ago today, we made this weekend excursion to New York. When we planned the trip, all we were concerned about was recovery from the first cataract surgery, and now we knew that the love of my life also had blood cancer.
My fears were minor compared to those she was bottling up inside her. We knew our journey of love was entering a new epoch, but neither of us knew what the future held for us. All we knew for sure was that our love would grow stronger despite our challenges.
We had reserved a room at a Marriott on 41st and Fifth Avenue by the main library and Bryant Park. Leaving Penn Station, we took a cab to the hotel as the walk would be too much for her. Jan’s eyes were wide open as she looked at the city we both loved.
Since it opened, Jan had wanted to see the Beautiful the Carole King Musical. Life had consumed our time and delayed our plans to see the musical, and now we had tickets in the orchestra for one of the last performances.
Her joy was contagious as we walked into the theatre, and it bubbled over like a freshly opened bottle of Champagne. Her happiness became my joy.
The performance was not just beautiful but also unique. Hearing Jan quietly singing along to the music made me want to cry tears of happiness openly.
When the cast joined in singing You’ve Got a Friend, I held her hands and put my arm around her.
When you’re down and troubled,
And you need some love and care,
And nothing, nothing is going right
Close your eyes and think of me,
And soon I will be there
To brighten up even your darkest night.You just call out my name
Carole King
And you know wherever I am
I’ll come running to see you again
Winter, spring, summer or fall
All you have to do is call
And I’ll be there
You’ve got a friend
“I will always be there for you!” I told her.
But I also wanted to remind her that we had many friends together and separately that she and I could reach out to for help. I told her, “We cannot defeat cancer alone, and we can only do it by working together with our family and friends.” The only way we could survive whatever type of blood cancer she had was with the love and support of family and friends.
My love for Jan had never been as strong as it was that evening with a tapestry of Carole King songs in our hearts. Jan and I floated in the air as our guardian angels surrounded us with love and support on our return to the hotel.
Sharing Jan’s Love Because Love Never Dies!
Have you ever wanted to know how I met Jan?
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.
After almost 48 years, I recently lost my wife, Jan Lilien. Like The Little Prince, Jan and I believed that “The most beautiful things in the world cannot be seen or touched, they are felt with the heart.” This blog is a collection of my random thoughts on love, grief, life, and all things considered.
