''Everything I Own'' will forever remind me of my father.

Artist: Bread
Title: “Everything I Own”

The day my father passed away I drove my Mom back home and stayed the night there. That night I cried myself to sleep with my face down in Dad’s pillow, taking in his scent as deeply as I could. The following morning I woke up to face the world without him for the very first time.

On the drive back to my own home I uncharacteristically made the first portion of the trip in silence. Usually I have my iPod blaring but my mind was still in disbelief of the events that had transpired. About a third of the way home I realized that I was surrounded by silence and decided to let music join me in my numbness.

Now I have joked over the years that my iPod is psychic. When I give it free will and allow it to randomly select songs with the shuffle feature, my iPod will somehow find the perfect songs for the occasion. I’d been served up with songs about how much love stinks when relationships had soured as well as songs about hanging in there when I was going through a particularly high-pressured project at work. Through thick and thin, my iPod knew what it was doing. On this particular drive home it proved that emphatically.

I broke fifteen minutes of being lost in my own thoughts by talking aloud to my cherished MP3 player. “Okay, Psychic iPod, what do you have for me today of all days?” I then selected the shuffle feature and sat back.

The first song that came out? The theme from the TV shows “The Jeffersons”. In two seconds time I had cracked the first smile I had managed to form in as long as I could remember.

“Oh, well, we’re movin’ on up (movin’ on up) to the east side…to a deluxe apartment in the sky-y-y!”

Yes, Dad had moved on up to the sky. I couldn’t wait until the next song came on.

With over 7,500 songs from which to choose, the Psychic iPod managed to pluck back to back songs from the big band era — Dad’s personal favorite style of music.

The tension in my entire body that I had when I began my trip was quickly dissipating. Each song was taking me back to a happy time in my life when I was in the presence of my father.

And then the Psychic iPod decided it was time to reach into its vast library and pluck the perfect song to forever associate with my father – Bread’s “Everything I Own”.

“Everything I Own” – Bread ( iTunes )

Talk about reaching in and tugging on my heart strings. Oh no, this was beyond that…this was a good old-fashioned kick in the pants. Every line that came out hit me with an intensity I’d never gotten before (or since) from a song. My eyes welled up to the point where I could no longer see to drive. Pulling over on the shoulder of the highway, I finished listening to the song before reaching up and turning off the music entirely. I spent a good ten minutes trying desperately to regain my composure before attempting to resume my trip home. I made the remainder of the trip in silence.

It took every ounce of strength I had to stand beside Dad’s gravesite and read the lyrics to that song to my family. I recounted the story of the four songs my Psychic iPod had handed over to my ears the day after he died. They smiled with the first one, nodded silently in remembrance with the second and third but endured the same melt down I did upon the reciting of the fourth and final song.

As it turns out the song was indeed written about the passing of a parent – songwriter David Gates’ father.

Mr. Gates? You nailed it. My hat is off to you…as well as many, many tears. Thank you. That song will forever remind me of my own father.

You sheltered me from harm
Kept me warm, kept me warm
You gave my life to me
Set me free, set me free
The finest years I ever knew
Were all the years I had with you
And…

(Chorus:)
I would give anything I own
Give up my life, my heart, my home
I would give everything I own
Just to have you back again

You taught me how to love
What it’s of, what it’s of
You never said too much
But still you showed the way
And I knew from watching you
Nobody else could ever know
The part of me that can’t let go
And…

(Repeat chorus)

Is there someone you know
You’re loving them so
But taking them all for granted?
You may lose them one day
Someone takes them away
And they don’t hear
The words you long to say

(Repeat chorus)

Just to touch you once again