Did anyone see Tim McGraw just sing the song Glenn Campbell wrote when he was first diagnosed? Very, very powerful lyrics. Google the lyrics if you have not heard the song.
Yes, I just saw it too. I have always loved Glen Campbell. I saw him in June 2012 in the beginnings of his Alz . This song brought me go tears. The lyrics ring true. Beautifully sung by Tim..
One of the kindest things anyone at the Alzheimer's Center ever said to me was a resident's wife who said, "Don't worry too much about his sadness. He'll reach a point where he won't miss you at all". This took such a load off my mind - I could stand my sadness, but not his. It is still horrific for me to imagine he is sitting there missing me. I loved the fact that Glen Campbell wrote something about the best part being selfishly, I'm not gonna miss you. I thought it was a great way of saying that if he knew what he was missing, life would be unbearable. Anyway, I didn't know anything about this song until I saw Tim McGraw sing it tonight, and it was very moving. And somehow uplifting.
Yes, indeed I heard Tim sing it this eve. Powerful!
Tears streaming down my face and I wasn't sure what he meant with, "I won't miss you at all" - I know I don't have the exact words but something like that
Wasn't clear what that meant. I found it haunting....but I really wanted to understand.
I googled the lyrics, too, and like myrtle found them creepy. Perhaps set to music they come across much differently, but after reading the lyrics I had no desire to hear the song sung.
Well, they are kind of creepy, in the same weirdly awful way as the actual experience of having an LO with AD sometimes makes your stomach turn. But for that reason, and the poignancy of the song actually being sung, especially by Glen Campbell, it's an emotionally evocative, if not exactly "sweet," thing.
Glenn was a realist and thoroughly understood what his disease was and what it would do to him. After the disease progresses, it is not the patient that suffers it is the people who love them and take the "long goodbye" journey with him. I believe I read somewhere that he wrote the song for his wife because he didn't want her to suffer his disease along with him.
I am personally glad that my husband does not have to go through the horrible pain of separation. It may be the only blessing that I can think of that he does not hurt like I do emotionally (or if he does it is not apparent). We have loved each other for so long and the thought of him hurting like I do is unbearable. The sadness that simply overtakes me comes like waves in a stormy sea.
I also recommend that anyone that wants to hear the song and didn't last night---google it and listen to the version recorded by Glen Campbell's son. Very beautiful. Like Joan, I find the differing responses to the lyrics interesting but that fact we are having this conversation at all is important---I have always believed you cannot cure a disease if the public cannot have a conversation about it. Between Glen's song, Julianne's win, Eddie Redmain (sp?)'s win and shout out to ALS, it was a pretty good night for having conversations about diseases.
Agree, re the version recorded by Glen's son. Really nicely and simply done. Here's a web address: http://theboot.com/shannon-campbell-im-not-gonna-miss-you/
Thanks Charlotte for writing the lyrics - I really have never heard it, but wondered what the "I'm never gonna miss you" meant. Now I get it. I don't think I find the words creepy exactly, but maybe rather prophetic from the point of view of the one with the disease. I don't think Dan would ever think of things like that, would never express things like that, would not recognize the emotions at all - he never shared very easily & now it seems that he has no emotion of any kind (well, maybe anger at me much of the time!). He simply is not aware of anything having to do with his disease, doesn't even realize he has a disease.