Here comes the Sun - Nina Simone.

Day 04 - A song that makes you sad

I often wonder if I should talk to you about how many friends I’ve lost to depression. It seems like too serious a topic for me to write about on what is (most of the time) a whimsical blog. Maybe someday I will try to address it, with the proper reverence those people I’ve loved and lost. 

But if I’m to tell you about why this song makes me feel sad, then I need to tell you about my friend Roberta Grey. Roberta died 4 years ago at the age of 28 after a long battle with depression. She was equal parts inspiring, beautiful, intelligent and delicate. Roberta wrote for an Irish newspaper, and my friends and I loved reading her weekly column to find out if she had mentioned any of us.

At the funeral I held it together until they played this song at the end, within the first few notes I broke down. Here comes the Sun sung by Nina Simone was the last song Roberta ever listened to, and I’ve never heard a person’s personality captured so perfectly within a few simple strikes of a piano keyboard.

(30 Day Song Challenge)