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NanceGreggs

(27,821 posts)
Mon Aug 8, 2022, 06:28 AM Aug 2022

My Bestest Friend is Gone

He died a few weeks ago. Our history together is too long and complicated to go into here.

He was a singer/songwriter, and recorded this song in the late '60s. My then-husband produced the song.

Little did I know that Don had written and recorded his own message from beyond the grave decades before he actually passed.

I believe some of you here who have lost loved ones will find comfort in his vision of the afterlife.

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My Bestest Friend is Gone (Original Post) NanceGreggs Aug 2022 OP
I am sorry 😔 Demovictory9 Aug 2022 #1
Wonderful person. NanceGreggs Aug 2022 #3
I'm so sorry vercetti2021 Aug 2022 #2
Thank you. I believe, in what I'm not so sure, but I've received too much help not to believe. Joinfortmill Aug 2022 #4
A comforting message... hlthe2b Aug 2022 #5
I share your loss Roy Rolling Aug 2022 #6
Thank you so much. NanceGreggs Aug 2022 #8
Beautiful, celestial sound... Trueblue Texan Aug 2022 #12
I do find comfort in it ... NanceGreggs Aug 2022 #13
It is 'proposed': Without our corporal bodies, our 'mind'/'intellect' is what exists eternally. sprinkleeninow Aug 2022 #26
What a legacy True Dough Aug 2022 #28
What a nice song! 2naSalit Aug 2022 #7
So sorry for your loss. Losing dear friends is tough. Lonestarblue Aug 2022 #9
That was his legacy. NanceGreggs Aug 2022 #10
Deepest sympathy. sinkingfeeling Aug 2022 #11
My condolences Ohio Joe Aug 2022 #14
Energy cannot be destroyed. What you loved about him still exists...it's just so darned difficult to Karadeniz Aug 2022 #15
Nance, my babylonsister Aug 2022 #16
Take solace in knowing that you have honored your friend Cozmo Aug 2022 #17
My dear Nance, please accept my deepest condolences on the loss of niyad Aug 2022 #18
Thank you, niyad. NanceGreggs Aug 2022 #22
So sorry. littlemissmartypants Aug 2022 #19
Ah, my dear Nance....my deepest condolences on the loss of your dear friend... CaliforniaPeggy Aug 2022 #20
... NanceGreggs Aug 2022 #24
I am so sorry you lost a very dear friend. Fla Dem Aug 2022 #21
I'm very sorry for your loss, Nance. iemanja Aug 2022 #23
....... marmar Aug 2022 #25
... sprinkleeninow Aug 2022 #27
What a beautiful song...and what a sad loss of a treasured friend. I'm sure Don highplainsdem Aug 2022 #29
What a touchingly beautiful song. Poetic artistry... JudyM Aug 2022 #30

NanceGreggs

(27,821 posts)
3. Wonderful person.
Mon Aug 8, 2022, 06:42 AM
Aug 2022

Saw me through some of the worst times of my life - and made me laugh more times than I can say.

Roy Rolling

(6,947 posts)
6. I share your loss
Mon Aug 8, 2022, 06:57 AM
Aug 2022

What is it about death that makes us viscerally sad? It’s such a terrifying topic for me I don’t let my mind even go there.

So I understand enough of grief to hate it myself, but have a call to action to help comfort others in the throes of a spiritual event beyond the comprehension of our mundane, material mind and intelligence.

Big hugs and empathy for you, NanceGreggs, you make my life a little more intellectually honest with your musings. Because of your service to others we all grieve with you. I know I do.😔

NanceGreggs

(27,821 posts)
8. Thank you so much.
Mon Aug 8, 2022, 07:13 AM
Aug 2022

I lost four of my closest friends in 2021 - and accepted their passing as stoically as I accepted the loss of my beloved husband, JeffR, in 2015.

People die, and it is the the lot of the living to move on.

But losing Don was somehow too much to bear. His music reverberates within my soul - and I don't want it to go unnoticed or unheard.

Trueblue Texan

(2,454 posts)
12. Beautiful, celestial sound...
Mon Aug 8, 2022, 07:35 AM
Aug 2022

...the sound makes me think of unbounded consciousness. I'm sorry for your loss and hope you find comfort in this wonderful music...I know I did.

Peace.

NanceGreggs

(27,821 posts)
13. I do find comfort in it ...
Mon Aug 8, 2022, 07:39 AM
Aug 2022

... and knowing that even one person found comfort in it as well is a gift to my soul.

True Dough

(17,392 posts)
28. What a legacy
Mon Aug 8, 2022, 11:26 AM
Aug 2022

to leave behind music that moves people. Other than one's children and certain legislation, I think songs are among the greatest gifts any person can give. Listening to tunes that you knew from earlier in your life can stir your soul, take you places, make you reflect and make you feel deep emotions.

Your friend's intimate offering to the world will always have special meaning to you and it's there whenever you want to turn to it, even if though he can no longer answer your calls or go for dinner.

I hope that Don is now as free as he envisioned when he recorded that song.

2naSalit

(86,978 posts)
7. What a nice song!
Mon Aug 8, 2022, 07:11 AM
Aug 2022

My sincere condolences.

It seems as time goes on we see more of those dear to us transition to the nonphysical world, I don't think they ever leave us because the memories of them have energy and energy doesn't disappear, it can only transform.

Karadeniz

(22,607 posts)
15. Energy cannot be destroyed. What you loved about him still exists...it's just so darned difficult to
Mon Aug 8, 2022, 07:57 AM
Aug 2022

lose the body that brought that energy to you. I'm so sorry for your loss... RIP

niyad

(113,968 posts)
18. My dear Nance, please accept my deepest condolences on the loss of
Mon Aug 8, 2022, 08:42 AM
Aug 2022

your friend. Please know that your DU family is here for you, so lean as much as you need.

NanceGreggs

(27,821 posts)
22. Thank you, niyad.
Mon Aug 8, 2022, 09:13 AM
Aug 2022

I wish I could explain (even to myself) why Don's death is even more devastating than the passing of my dearest life-long friends and my beloved husband - but I can't.

I think it was the fact that his music died with him - and his music was the soundtrack of my life.

CaliforniaPeggy

(149,831 posts)
20. Ah, my dear Nance....my deepest condolences on the loss of your dear friend...
Mon Aug 8, 2022, 09:02 AM
Aug 2022

Once upon a time, some years ago, you had this to say about love and loss...I wrote it down, and it has comforted me many times over.

Today, I write it here for you.

Those we love are often a gift we cannot keep. We can only remember that they were indeed a gift --- and be grateful they were ours for the time we had them in our lives, as fleeting as that time may have been.

May this bring you comfort!

Fla Dem

(23,890 posts)
21. I am so sorry you lost a very dear friend.
Mon Aug 8, 2022, 09:12 AM
Aug 2022

May his music and your warm memories always keep him close by and in your heart.


highplainsdem

(49,125 posts)
29. What a beautiful song...and what a sad loss of a treasured friend. I'm sure Don
Mon Aug 8, 2022, 11:28 AM
Aug 2022

is grateful that you're posting his music, especially with it helping others.

I'm using present tense because I do believe in an afterlife, not for any religious reasons -- I haven't had any religious beliefs since leaving the Catholic Church in my teens -- but because of personal experiences and those I've heard about others having, both NDEs (near-death experiences) and ADCs (after-death communications, direct rather than through a medium). I hope Don will find some really stunning way to reassure and comfort you.

It's seemed to me that musicians are often especially open-minded and perceptive about such matters. When I read Johnny Cash's autobiography, written with Patrick Carr, nearly 20 years ago, I expected anything in it about a possible afterlife and spiritual existence to be conventionally religious, especially because of his long friendship with Bllly Graham. Instead, I found stories about ADCs, at least one NDE, reincarnation, and premonitions his brother and a musician friend had had of their deaths. Those don't fit neatly into established religions (and I've found that some people most resistant to considering NDEs and ADCS are very religious people who can't fit those widespread experiences into their religious dogma). But they'd happened to Cash or to people close to him, and he accepted them for what they appeared to be.

You were fortunate to have such a long, close friendship, and it has to have included lots of special moments as well as cherished traditions, whether little in-jokes or something more elaborate and formal. You might find yourself getting reminders of some of those that are totally unexpected, perfectly timed in terms of being just what you need then, and impossible to ignore. I hope you will, anyway.

JudyM

(29,294 posts)
30. What a touchingly beautiful song. Poetic artistry...
Tue Aug 9, 2022, 12:39 AM
Aug 2022

May you soon find the strength to gently rest yourself in treasured memories of him, and in his peaceful, accepting vision. It’s so hard to lose a beloved friend…
Wishing you peace as you walk this very difficult path.

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