A Legacy Project

My father was invited to sing at his grandmother’s funeral. 

His Aunt Clarice insisted. Of the old aunts–Edna and Hattie, Fern and Pearl and Clarice–I think she was his favorite. He told the story more than once of how she had taught him how to skip when he was in kindergarten. A story I could never quite square with reality. I couldn’t imagine my father–or any kid, really–not knowing how to skip. And, more to the point, try as I might, I couldn’t picture Aunt Clarice skipping.

He had a pretty good voice, a wobbly tenor, that, when forced, could be piercing. In church it seemed like his voice stood out over others, though I was standing right next to him, so that might have been why. In those days, my brother and I were subjected to weekly installments of the Lawrence Welk show, which was torture. The show often featured an Irish tenor named Joe Feeny. He probably sang a number of standards and classics, which, if I had known them, I might have appreciated. But I didn’t. Joe Feeny was torturous by association with Lawrence Welk. When my father sang, I heard Joe Feeny. 

She was almost 100 years old when she died. We called her grandma great. Our grandfather’s mother. It was hard for a little kid to grasp–a grandfather could have a mother? We had visited her house a few times. It was hot and stuffy, and she was old and kind of batty by then and didn’t know us. She may have found it hard to grasp–her grandson had children? 

I’m sure he was honored to sing. Someone, without consulting him, had picked a hymn he barely knew. When he got up to sing, his tenor lifted and soared and cracked a few times. I think he flubbed some of the lines, as well. 

He felt bad. 

He was humiliated, and I was embarrassed for him..  

But he recovered. Years later, my kids would smile when we mentioned his voice. I would imitate the sound of it when he sang “Joy to the World” at the Christmas service we attended together. “That’s not funny,” my wife would say. She was right. It wasn’t. Me and dad and Joe Feeny, we could harm an ear.