Uncovering the Past

I am in possession of hundreds of tapes of services at a church I attended for many years. A former pastor saw to it that all of the services during his tenure were recorded. When he left, the new pastor decided to discard the tapes. By that time, I had moved on to another church, but one of my friends rescued them from the trash. Her purpose was to salvage history and listen to some of the sermons again. However, as time passed, the tapes collected dust, and she mentioned to me that she would throw them out.

During the years those tapes were made, I frequently participated in the music ministry. Besides singing in the choir, I often sang solos or sang with others in duets, trios and quartets. Most of the music that I composed myself was sung during those years. I saw this as an opportunity to capture some of my own history, and so, I begged the tapes.

One of my greatest losses in life has been my voice. Age and a familial tremor have effected my ability to control my voice, so that I am no longer sure that what I hear in my head is what will come out of my mouth. I let the chance to get some of my original songs recorded pass me by. Here was a chance to retrieve them. True, the recordings are not professionally done and the balance between instrument and voice is not great on all of them, but something may be better than nothing.

Over the last year or more, I have been going through these tapes. I set the counter on the tape player to zero and stop it every 30-40 ticks on the assumption that if one of my songs is there, I will catch it. In addition to finding several of my solos which were original songs, I have found several other solos, duets with my husband, my daughter's voice reading scripture, and my son's voice in a skit.

This week I found the only trio I have ever done with my two brothers. One of my brothers is currently living with us, while he puts his life back together. I think that hearing the tape was very positive for him. The song we did was our father's favorite hymn. It was 1994 and both of our parents were still living at the time and present when we sang it.

We did one verse together with accompaniment, my two brothers did the second verse as a duet, and we sang the third verse a Capella. My brother enjoyed the fact that when the accompaniment came back in on that third chorus, we were dead on pitch. He also commented on the unique blending of sibling voices.

I am pondering the interesting timing. I have been going through these tapes for over a year, but I "happened" to find this one during the few weeks that my brother is living here and on a day when a boost to his self-esteem was much needed.

To some this would seem a coincidence. To me it is another affirmation that God is good and cares about each of us individually. He who sees the sparrow fall, sees you and me.