Sail Away Sweet Susan

Some songs just make me cry; The Man In Black singing Hurt, Angel by Sarah McLachlan or Ryan Adams’ La Cienega Just Smiled – I can’t listen to any of these songs without crying like a baby.

There’s no real reason just something in the melody and the atmosphere these songs evoke which sends shivers down my spine and hot salty water down my cheeks.

Eva Cassidy’s cover of the Sting classic Fields of Gold is different. It provokes the same reaction, but on this occasion it’s because of a sad memory which will be forever associated with it.

My Aunt died in 2006 after various health struggles for the previous decade. She’d been written off so many times, and always bounced back, I never really thought she would be taken from us. But, that Fall, she was.

At her funeral her whicker casket was taken out to the strains of ‘All You Need Is Love’ – it was unexpected and summed her up perfectly. It made me smile. It was impossible to hear that Beatles classic and to feel warmth and happiness even at this saddest of times.

In contrast her environmental burial – in surrounded by the rolling moors of the Yorkshire countryside – could not have been more different.

With the rain drizzling down and the clouds rolling in we threw flowers onto her coffin whilst Eva Cassidy’s beautiful voice wafted across the landscape.

I’d forgotten about this until the other day when my ipod randomly chose to play track three of Ten Summoner's Tales.

As I walked along London’s Oxford Street, tears immediately started pouring down my face. London being London nobody seemed to take any notice of the visibly upset young man just about keeping it together – white headphones buried deep into his ears.

Probably just as well, when it comes to grief something’s are best kept to yourself.