“Matt, sing for me.” Grandfather pleaded. Sick, yet stubborn, his eyes longed for peace. I picked up my guitar, the same yellow wooden box with the same rusty strings that were laid across its neck when I begged for my grandfather to buy it for me. Though the cancer was no friend, his smile was. The same smile that urged me to keep singing.

“Grandpa, what should I sing?” I asked, always expecting the same response. On cue, Grandpa whispered. “Whatever makes you happy, Matt.” Strumming our favorite chord, the beautiful C major, I began to sing. I watched his eyes fill up with tears just like the coffee mugs him and I would leave in the rain, hoping to steal all of the rain from the sky. He would always tell me that the rain was the angels crying because my singing was so beautiful. He could always make me smile. Though he could not tell me what the name if the song was, or even who sang it, I knew his heart had been mended. Telling me that the cancer is just a little set-back, he urged me to play on. He urged me to keep my music going. He urged me never to quit.

“We’ll get over this, Grandma, I promise,” He would always say. “Play me an old one, Matt. How about some Willie?” Willie, he was his favorite. As I grabbed the resting guitar, I could see his smile lighting up his worn face. Patsy could never subdue the cancer, but Willie did the trick. Willie, and his lonesome whistle. willie, and his lovesick blues.

“Hey, Grandpa! How about some Marty Robbins?” I always wanted to please him. He was my inspiration.

“Matt, you may forget how to sew, cook, or even do things for yourself,” he would always tell me. “but you will never forget about our memories. You’ll never forget how we would sit in the studio for hours learning new songs. Promise me you’ll never forget my old bones?” As I finished my song, and let him sleep, I could feel tears streaming down my face. Walking away, I knew he’d never forget.

As the memories of his lecturing and his teachings replayed through my head, I approach his sleeping body for the last time.

“I’ll never stop singing, Grandpa.”