Remembering My Sister: 5 Years Later

Two days after my sister died on August 24, 2018, I wrote this short remembrance:

  My Sister, Linda Louise Lane, passed away on August 24, 2018.  She was only 59 years old.  There were many times I wanted to talk to her like siblings should always do.  But she drifted away from her family.  We seem to forget that life can be short and fleeting. To forgive should never be a hard thing to do.  What I've written about below may seem trivial, especially if you knew about the last years of her life.  I think about her often. And hope she reads this and smiles. With love from her brother.

  One of the earliest memories I have of hearing music came from my sister's bedroom in the mid to late-60's.  She was barely 10, and I was 5 years younger.  But she either had the radio tuned to an AM Top 40 station, or she was playing a 45 (and sometimes an album) she had on her turntable.  As the 60's rolled along her tastes remained with Top 40 Pop.  It was during these years that I heard the Beatles, Elvis Presley, the Monkees, Tom Jones and many more. She had a carrying case for her singles. It was inside that case that I first played “Whiter Shade of Pale” and other late 60’s singles. By the early 70's her records included Teen Idols, Motown, Philly Soul, Carpenters, Elton John, the Eagles and many One-Hit Wonders.  When she reached her High School years in the late-70's there was Michael Jackson's Off the Wall, Disco, future Classic Rock artists and 8-track tapes. All those different sounds. I soaked it all in. 

  Much like my Dad's Country and Pop albums, my sister's listening habits had a profound mark on the eclectic taste in music I have today. She was unaware, but it was one of the greatest gifts she ever gave to me.