Rock N Roll… U2 Concert With My Friends
The Beatles Started It All...
When George was a little kid he heard the Beatles on his transistor radio and that was all she wrote. He was hooked and he never got loose. He started thinking in musical terms. By that I mean listening, really listening, to what makes a good song, memorizing lyrics by the score, building a music collection so big we have a room dedicated to it, and of course, playing, playing, playing his guitars. He loved it, really loved it, by the time he was ten, and it shaped his life.
He wanted a guitar when he was little and he finally got one, but he always regretted, as he said, “being too lazy,” to take many lessons. He would sit around and copy licks, play parts of songs, goof around constantly. He couldn’t wait to get old enough to get out of Asheville, to get a chance to play music, to get to a city. (Of course, these past few years he couldn’t wait to get back to Asheville!)
George's Early Band Days... He is front right corner with guitar.
He got to Atlanta and he started playing in a band and he was happy. He got a job, eventually, working for The Brains as a roadie and he toured the country some, got familiar with New York City and had a lot of adventures. He worked later for the Producers, again as a roadie, and saw even more of the country.
Early Years at Smith Kline Beecham
He made enough money at that to pursue his other passion, flying, learning to glide at first, and then decided to go back to college at Embry-Riddle where he got a B.S. and started his career as a flight instructor at Epps. A long road, but just the one he wanted. He loved to fly and he was proud to do it professionally, to work for Quest, to move the lab specimens and in his way to help sick people who depend on the results of those tests.
Of course, he stayed very loyal to his first love, music. He kept up with new music and knew who all the bands were and what he thought of them. He wrote songs and was setting up to record some just before he he died. He was enthusiastic about, inspired by and moved by music, and it made him a better, more thoughtful and emotionally deep person.
Every night he got his guitar out and played late at night, and that was his “me” time. Upstairs in bed at 4 or 5 or 6 am while he played, I’d drift in and out of sleep and dreamily enjoy the concert. As he often did, he played for us a while before he left for work on the day of the accident.
George didn’t share a lot about his dreams with many people. And of course, as he got older his dreams changed as dreams do. But he loved music, he passed that love of music down to Lily, and he still wanted to record his songs and let people hear what all of that musical inspiration had led him to after all these years.
We won’t get to hear his songs. They were still in his head. But I heard bits and pieces during his early morning concerts and they were beautiful and raw. He had a voice. It’s gone now, but it was beautiful and significant. He knew I thought that because I told him so and encouraged him to express it.
With Dopp, Cathy, Lorna and Kyle in Chicago
Lily is here meeting people who participated in his musical life and they are kind and caring and its making her feel very close to her dad. She’ll always have this memory that illuminates a very important part of her life, tells her more about her daddy and is helping her realize at a very young age that the world is big, and interesting, and she has a lot of options for her future. She’s feeling very reflective, making little comments about the city and our old friendships and all she’s learned about her father in these very few days since he passed on.
I wish she could have learned some of these lessons at a much later date, but this is the hand we have been dealt. We’re scared and sad and oh so lonely for him, but after our trip through the clouds to get here, and our time with the music people who surround us, we’re feeling very close to George indeed.
We miss you, George. We love you. We feel you.
Kyle, thanks so much for taking us out to the best Thai dinner I’ve had years. You came a long way for a short dinner, and I’ll never forget your effort. We are all amazed at everyone’s kindness towards us.
Very, very tired. Lots of the songs hit me right in the heart, especially “with or without you.” I thought about George the whole show, and just wondered how we are going to live without his physical presence in our lives. As Cathy said tonight, “No matter what you do, it’ll never be as good again.” Got through this long, long week, haven’t hit the wall, but I feel it coming at me. No matter how fast I run, overwhelming grief is nipping at my heels, and I expect it to catch up with me soon. Good night, all.
Cathy is righ in her saying I just hope that even though it can never be as good it will be good for you someday, a different kind of good.
The grief will hit you, maybe not till after the services but it will. Allow the grief, it is all part of the process.
One step at a time, one day at a time, one hour at a time if it all seems to overwhelming.
Have a good trip home.
In one of your earlier posts you mentioned that you thought the flying classes would “be the end of us”…We can’t say no to what life brings our way, and it is good that you are letting us carry a bit of the pain for you…How we wish we could carry it all….
Ride this wave of love, dearest…
and that is the key…live in it the best you can. Try and embrace the adventure and not shrink. Pain tries to make us small, a broken heart tries to make us stand still. Still and small makes for a flat life, fortunately, from what I am gathering, both are the opposites of Lily, so you have a guide that will lead you back into the world. Early in my days with Donna, she had a friend who had died of a heart ailment in her late 20′s, we met her husband of six months at the funeral for the first time (although, they had been together for some time prior) he had a Cherokee Indian Chief speak instead of a preacher…said he wasn’t a hippy or anything, but couldn’t stand the idea of adding a guy with a suit, he-and she, had never met talking about how wonderful she was, and figured a proud American Indian, who would have spirituality as a part of his human foundation and not something he used as a tool, might simply make it easier, less dark and less sad
The Chief walked up to the lectern, smiled, looked at the husband, and said, “this is very hard, life is very hard, life is very short, love always comes back…you have one year to morn, and then you must move on with your new big life” and walked off
Glad you had a safe and fun trip and were able to make some new memories with Lilly.
Want to thank you so much for the tickets and the bus ride. We did appreciate it so much. Lily is worn out, but she knows a lot about her dad, bono and “the peace lady.” So cute. I’ll post some pictures tomorrow.
You did a nice thing.
You are blessed with many great freinds. These will be the ones that will carry you through the pain. I shared with you in another post that I had lost my son in a car accident when he was 16, it was not until many years later that I looked back and really see the many, many miracles that happened all around his death. He was surrounded by people that loved him and those same people loved me and their love carried me through the pain of the loss of my sweet little boy. The love of your friends will carry you through the loss of your dear sweet husband.
Have a Blessed Day,
Sharon Mullally, (Friend of Cathy Hendrix)
