If you look to the right of the page you’ll find the list of my all time top ten posts. Lurking at #6 is a piece from 2021 called Family And Music. This is actually a reworking of two previous posts from 2018, with an added footnote from 2022. It became something of a magnum opus and it contains a lot of my thoughts about why family relationships are important to us. Newer readers won’t have seen it but are welcome to try it out if they wish. A brief update on that piece: sadly we lost Dad in January 2023 at the grand old age of 95, but his memory lives on and is loved and cherished. You may have seen the post I wrote in his honour and reprised earlier this year.

The reason for today’s post is that on Tuesday we welcomed a new family member. My younger daughter, Ruth, gave birth to a daughter of her own, taking my total of granddaughters to three, and I couldn’t be more delighted. The new little one is called Sirena, which is a Spanish word meaning ‘serene’ or ‘siren,’ both good reasons for such a lovely name, but for Ruth and her husband Dean it has the added meaning of being translatable as ‘mermaid.’ Dean has two boys from a previous marriage and since they met Ruth they have given her the nickname of ‘mermaid,’ so this seems to me to be a wonderful choice of name.

I won’t bore you with the details of how this happened, but Sirena was born four weeks early, weighing just 5lbs 1oz, and has been in the ICU as a precaution since then. Mum and Dad have both been able to hold and feed her, though, and as all of the tests the hospital have done have been fine we are hopeful that they may all be going home soon. I thought I’d celebrate in my usual fashion by playing a few appropriate tunes.

They don’t come much better than this one:

Stevie Wonder wrote Isn’t She Lovely to celebrate the birth of his daughter Aisha, and it is just perfect: “isn’t she lovely, made from love” is such a beautiful line.

My second tune for today is one that reflects on a new birth from the position of a father wondering what the new arrival will inherit from its parents, and how their influence will impact on its life. The song is Marc Cohn’s Things We’ve Handed Down, and it is gorgeous:

This next one, Baby Mine, was originally written by Frank Churchill and Oliver Wallace for the Disney Dumbo movie, released in 1941, and was sung for the movie by Betty Noyes.  There are many versions of this lovely song of a mother’s unconditional love for her child, including one by Alison Krauss, but today I’m going with The Hound And The Fox and the version they recorded in 2017 for their album Moon Songs – Lullabies For Baby And Parents:

Beautiful, meaningful sentiments that have universal appeal, and written for an animated movie! The Hound And The Fox are Reilly and McKenzie Zamber, a husband and wife duo who make lovely music of their own, and have a nice line in cover versions too. They made this video to tie in with the live action remake of the movie which came out in 2019: the beautiful piano accompaniment is by Nathan Alef, who also played on the album version.

Just one more for today, and I’m closing with one of the songs I played in the previous post. This is another along the lines of a parent hoping that their little one will take their chance in life. Coincidentally, The Hound And The Fox have done a nice cover version, but for me the original is still the best:

Lee Ann Womack, with I Hope You Dance. As I said first time round I’m the world’s worst dancer but I can relate to the meaning the song gives it.

Something else I said in that previous post is, I think, worth repeating as a summary of the importance of family for us:

As we become adults, we build relationships of our own and, if we are blessed, we help to continue our own dynastic line. I have two wonderful daughters, and would like to think that I played a little part in helping them become the people they are today. though my ex-wife deserves the lion’s share of the credit for helping them become the caring, capable women they have turned out to be.

My two girls are extremely close and supportive of each other, and Ruth has always loved being an Auntie to Katy’s two girls. I think that relationship is about to become a two way thing, and I’m sure that Felicity and Verity will be excited about meeting their new cousin. No doubt that will be happening soon, once Sirena is out of the ICU, and I just know that I will be very moved to see the first pictures of them all together. But that’s what families are about, isn’t it: that bond that ties us and makes such a special part of the completeness of our lives.

I could go on, but I’ll probably get soppy and sentimental, and that would never do! See you again for Song Lyric Sunday 🤱