*click play and listen to the words of the song before you read the post…

Vaya con Dios

I’ve become somewhat obsessed with Freddy Fender since dad died. I stumbled across his music when I was trying to find songs for the memorial slide show. I had known for a while that dad liked Freddy Fender. I heard a couple of his songs over the years, but had not really ever listened to the lyrics.
At the time, one song seemed to just jump out at me, Vaya con Dios. The title, Go With God, seemed fitting for a memorial slide show. The more I listened to the lyrics, the more I felt like it was dad singing to us all there, gathered at his funeral:
“Now the hacienda’s dark, the town is sleeping;
Now the time has come to part, the time for weeping.
Vaya Con Dios my darling, Vaya Con Dios my love”
I’d close my eyes and imagine it was dad singing the words of the song to us. The more I read up about Freddy Fender, the more he reminded me of dad. Their thick curly hair and their well-groomed mustache were so similar. If you pictured them side by side, they could have been twins.
At the funeral, I sat there in the pew, soaked in grief and watching dad’s life in pictures slowly cross the screen. I wondered how I was going to get through life without him. I imagined him singing the next verse to try to comfort us..
“Whever you may be, I’ll be beside you,
Although you’re many million dreams away.
Each night I’ll say a pray’r, a pray’r to guide you
To hasten every lonely hour of ev’ry lonely day.”
These particular lyrics have helped comfort me in the lonely days that have followed. And as I’ve clung to my grief as if I were clinging to dad himself, I again, imagine dad singing to us softly
“Now the dawn is breaking through a gray tomorrow,
But the memories we share are there to borrow.
Vaya con Dios my darling, Vaya con Dios my love.”
I can almost hear him saying “ay…mijitas! I’m ok…” as he sings his final verse to us…
“Now the village mission bells are softly ringing,
If you listen with your hear you’ll hear them singing,
Vaya con Dios my darling, Vaya con Dios my love.”
Today, when I hear this song, I can envision him, not walking away from us, but walking toward the sun, to GOD. And when I’m listening to this song, blaring out of the speakers and tears are streaming down my face as I am loudly singing to my dad, I know it’s time to stop clinging to my grief and let it go.
So I sing to him….
“Vaya con Dios my darling, Vaya con Dios my love…….”

Right!?!