Can you hear your song, Jilly Girl?  Listen carefully!  Your song is deep inside, but if you listen you can hear it.  It is a conglomeration of thousands of melodies from everyone who helped make you.  Your great-grandmother, Granny Greenway, Nana Thoma, Mama and great-aunts each contributed.  There are lots more that I don’t even remember.”

I recently found this message I had written to my granddaughter 15 or 16 years ago.  She had asked me to snuggle with her in our oversized recliner and watch a video.  Yes, we were still playing video tapes on a VCR back then.

We watched as an inventor named Doc and his dog Sprocket wandered through Fraggle Rock. Fraggle Rock is a Muppet type show created by Jim Henson.  It debuted in 1983.  Jillian was born in 1996 and has always loved retro things.  Betty Boop was her favorite animation and the theme from Top Gun was her favorite music.   The Fraggles spent the episode searching for their songs.  I heard Jillian humming, and realized she still had to find her inner songs.

I whispered to her, “Start looking now, before your life is cluttered with everyone else’s songs.”

Jillian is 19 years old now.  We don’t fit in that old recliner any more.  I’m sure neither of us have a copy of Fraggle Rock any longer.  We still enjoying snuggling occasionally.  She has a lovely song and it’s “cluttered” by many other songs.  I was wrong in one respect.  Her song is unique, but it’s definitely peppered with melodies and notes from everyone that has passed through her life and that’s the way it should be.

I haven’t shared this with Jillian and I don’t believe she will remember any advice I freely offered to her at 5 years young.  I hope she will always remember those special memories we created and continues to enjoy creating more of them.

But mostly, I hope she knows, how beautiful her song has become.