Broken windows and empty hallways
A pale dead moon in the sky streaked with gray
Human kindness is overflowing
And I think it’s going to rain today
Years ago I had a friend who was diagnosed with leukemia. She was beautiful, in her early twenties, full of energy and life, with the entire world before her.
The doctors prescribed a bone marrow transplant. The prognosis was not all that good, but where there is life there is hope.
Everyone brought presents. Mine was Judy Collins’ album “In My Life”. I’m not sure why I chose that album. Perhaps it was because each of its songs had been a great discovery for me, and I wanted to share that experience.
There was one song in particular — Randy Neuman’s “Think It’s Going to Rain Today” — that I really wanted my friend to hear. Even today I’m not sure why. I guess there was just something so fierce about that song, a sense of powerful connection, of life and friendship being sacred no matter how flawed, how imperfect, we all inevitably are.
She loved it. And then she had the bone marrow transplant. And then she died.
Even today, when I hear that song, I think back on that moment in life, now frozen in time.
Bright before me the signs implore me
To help the needy and show them the way
Human kindness is overflowing
And I think it’s going to rain today