h/t to Dianna Kennedy over at The Kennedy Adventures
For Emma
"I would just worship the ground that she walked on," said country music legend Collin Raye, talking about his firstborn grandchild Haley Marie Bell.
"Then eventually she didn't walk," said Raye. "Then she couldn't crawl. Then she couldn't hold her hands up. She would fall over. She couldn't control her head. She lost the ability to speak."
"This all started going wrong about four and it was a very fast downward spiral," he said.
Haley had a neurological disorder that the best doctors in the country could not diagnose.
"Over the next six years it was just brutal," said Raye. "It just got worse and worse and worse."
In an interview on CNSNews.com's "Online With Terry Jeffrey," Raye, who has recorded five platinum albums and 16 number one songs, talked about his granddaughter, his latest album--"Through It All, His Love Remains"--and his new role as spokesman for the Terri Schiavo Life and Hope Network.
"Medically, we tried everywhere, everything," Raye said. "Mayo, John Hopkin's, Children's Hospitals in Phoenix, Salt Lake City, Dallas, of course. Nothing."
"Now, we're out here trying to get a diagnosis, but no one is saying, 'We can help this child,'" Raye said. "She's not going to get any better. It was horrifying to watch how much she suffered."
"When you looked at her, she would look at you with fear, 'Poppy, do something. Why can't I do this? I'm itching and I can't move my hand to scratch it,'" said Raye. "She was totally alert and aware, but could do nothing. Her cerebellum was just basically being eaten away."
His granddaughter's courage and suffering inspired Raye to write a powerfully inspirational song--"She's With Me."
"I wrote that song on an airplane while she was alive, about a year before she passed away, as a tribute to her, just trying to describe the overwhelming joy-slash-sorrow that comes with having a child like that that you love so much that you cannot do anything for," said Raye. "It was a celebration of her life."
The first verse describes Raye taking Haley, in her wheelchair, to a restaurant. "She's with me/I proudly tell the maitre de as we arrive/He seems surprised/In a clumsy moment as he looks for room, for her blessed chair/A table stares, and their eyes show only pity/As they try to sympathize/'Oh, how difficult that must be,' look away/Day after day, they will never see the joy you bring/Only happy at the times I know that she's with me."
In the last verse of "She's With Me," Raye, a Catholic convert, imagines himself in heaven standing before God, ready to be judged as an imperfect human being.
"Lord, you have your ways, this I pray/On the day I stand before you, she'll stand right by my side/When you look upon me, head hung down in shame/I'll feel the blame, she'll look at me/And then she'll speak, in that precious voice/Don't worry 'bout him my Lord, 'cause you see/He's with me."
No comments:
Post a Comment