One of Tracey’s stories…

The Man I Never Met
(excerpt from “A Few Kind Words” by Tracey Gates)

“Have a seat on the bed, Mom, I have a surprise for you,” said Sheridan as she handed me a Kleenex. She then sat at her keyboard in the corner of the bedroom because there was no room for it in the tiny family room. I was visiting Sheridan, her then-boyfriend now-husband Colin, and Deacon, their dog, in their 5th floor apartment in Nashville overlooking Krispy Kreme on Elliston Place. Sheridan has been singing since she was a toddler in her highchair and has converted her passion for music into a career as a singer/songwriter and entrepreneur. She took a cleansing breath and told me she had written a song for me about my father, her grandfather, called “The Man I Never Met.” I now understood the need for the Kleenex.

My dad was a talented piano player and singer. I’ve always told Sheridan she got her musical talent from him. From a young age she told me she feels a connection to her grandfather through their shared love of music that skipped me altogether. The next three minutes were frozen in time while Sheridan sang about my father and the impact he has had on her life even though they never met. The love so vibrantly and unexpectedly released through song into that bedroom uniting three generations is sealed inside my heart in that special compartment reserved for Dad. The descriptive and beautiful combination of words that Sheridan chose for this song illustrated for me how much Dad had indeed influenced her life, even from heaven. The lump that formed in my throat while listening to this unexpected tribute rendered me speechless. All I could do when she was finished was to gesture for another Kleenex. Sheridan used song as her vehicle to share A Few Kind Words with me and she created a memory that is a treasure. I know Dad was in that room sitting on the bed with me shoulder to shoulder, his gorgeous blue eyes welling up and brimming with pride for his granddaughter.