I woke up with my back really hurting today. I forced myself to go to my water therapy because I knew it would feel good to get in the water and indeed it did. I didn’t want to get out. Now I’m home and Ernie is digging out all his Mike Henderson cds. You know he loves an artist when he has multiple copies of their albums.

Extremely rare photo documentation of a sleeveless me in the water

When I’m in the water I always lose count of where I am in my reps because my mind just wanders. It’s as though my mind is floating too. It never floats to bad things though. I don’t worry about Ernie or money or my walking or anything like that. Today my mind was full of Henderson’s memorial service. Tammy Rogers, Kieran Kane and Harry Stinson (not sure who the other guitarist was), so three of the Dead Reckoning founders, played That’s How I Remember You. Kevin Welch is in Australia now but he was missed and of course, the other Dead Reckoner was Henderson himself.

“Them in front and us in back…” Ernie still says that periodically when we have a full car with the boys.

I was so grateful they streamed the memorial. You could feel the love and memories and music, both the sadness and the shared humor in the room. The music was wonderful. Tammy Rogers shone, as did Chris Stapleton, but my favorite moment was this song.

We tend to identify the various stages of our life through music and the Dead Reckoners were an important time for us, after we left Chicago and before we had the boys. As I said in my last post, they were heady times.

It’s funny, as much as we have so many music friends, it seems that the ones from that era are gone or not in touch. I remember Eileen being at most of those shows. She helped me cook that dinner for them. I remember stripping my garden of all its salad greens, washing them but still finding a tiny slug. I worried and worried until Eileen finally said, “Cynthia, they’re from the South, they probably EAT slugs.” Oh lord. Another time I remember sitting at Fitzgerald’s with Eileen. As Henderson was playing, she leaned over and said, “Can you imagine how much his daughters adore him?” Eileen loved Henderson. Now they are both gone.

You can tell the promo’s because there’s always a little slip of paper claiming ownership once the store was done with it.

Onward yet again.

Top photo: picture of a Henderson CD with the reflection of house concert posters by Mark Gerking. Fitting somehow.

Thoughts?