more songs of hope

With heartfelt thanks to these master musicians:

•Gerry Brown, drums; Silvano Monasterios, Rhodes pianos; Bryan Le Mar, guitars; Michael Bennick, guitar (Hopeful Days) and vocalists: Lance Henry, Paul Pettitt (Share Your Life) group chorus: Sophia Allen, Ronny Bass, Nancy Hunter, Jim McGuffin, Kathleen Mullen, Daniel Scheider (A World in Need of Care) *

•Vocal and guitar for Hopeful Days recorded by Jim Stafford at Eclipse Recording Studio, St. Augustine, FL 

•Gerry Brown recorded by Marko Ruffolo at Markee Studios, Deerfield Beach, Fl

•All songs produced, engineered, mixed and mastered by Richard Serotta at Outline Studios, Miami, FL

•Special tribute to Paul Pettitt (1950-2011) keyboards, programming, vocals,  His contributions were seminal…his talent, legendary. 

A World in          Need of Care            Hopeful Days

Dear friends, we now meet                                                        Imperfect world, hopeless and hurt

These moments precious, sweet                                                 What a place we live in

The future is unclear                                                                   Not good enough, not blessed enough

So let’s keep each other near                                                     We are ever wanting

As friends we all know                                                                Never seem to find a foothold

The strengths we’ve come to show                                            It’s time to let the burden unfold

Will be taken and refined

And healing’s light will truly shine                                            Give us hopeful days

                                                                                                     And hearts full of grace

We touch with our hands                                                           Give us love to share

We touch with our hearts                                                          And dreams beyond despair

We share what we’ve learned                                                    Be real with me

And hope as each page turns                                                  ‘Cuz I need you here with me

For the moms and the girls                                                        Let us live in peace

For their lives precious pearls

Let us not succumb, despair                                                     Whatever thoughts, whatever moves

As we go into a world in need of care                                       Are the choices we make

                                                                                                     Imperfections, misperceptions

We help those in need                                                                Misdirection

When we follow, when we lead                                                 There’s beauty in our needs

We lean on our friends                                                               There’s beauty in our pleas

On their strength we can depend

The ones we have met                                                                Give us hearts lined with hope

In our hearts they are kept                                                         Hope in the unseen

May our paths cross again

And we’ll share where we have been                                        

                                                            Share Your Life         Sleeps Nor Slumbers

You bring me joy when I see you                                 All the needless worrying, tossing and turning 

You bring me peace when I’m with you                                                  Brings my heart despair

Your heart’s so amazing                                   I get out of my bed and go to the front porch

It reaches the depth of my soul                                                            And breathe the cool night air

                                                  In the night, I know my soul needs rest

Share your life, share your love                                                     Calm my fears, dear Lord

Share your walk with me                                             You know best

Share your life, share your love

Share your dreams (hopes) with me                                              For God neither sleeps nor slumbers

                                         He’s ever watching all His wonders

 Stay near to me from this life on                                                         What’s to come or what’s to be

                                              He treads the way before me

I need you here to carry on                                                       For He knows my secret prayers

Your love draws me in                                                                My every thought, my long despair

It calls to my heart deep within

                                                                                                    My hands out before me, shaking and trembling

You are my friend                                                                      I need to trust You now

With you I can’t pretend                                                             If I just pray, I must tell You all

It’s right with you                                                                      Take it from me now

It’s true with you                                                                         Answer my call

Share your life

                                                                                                    For God neither sleeps nor slumbers

                                                                                                    He’s ever loving all His wonders

                                                                                                    Even when we look away

                                                                                                    His gaze will never stray

                                                                                                    As we turn into the light

The Journey started over yonder in Austin, Texas.  Born of a Scottish-Irish first soprano from San Angelo and a businessman of German-descent from San Antonio, I spent most of my childhood singing alongside my mother.  At times I participated in even four vocal groups at a time and remember regularly listening to my mom’s 8-track tapes of Barbra Streisand and Dionne Warwick.  Singing quickly became my passion.  As I got older, however, I felt compelled to pick a reasonable major in college, so I went from journalism to marketing and ultimately to psychology, which, in retrospect seems less than a logical evolution.

After graduating with a psychology degree, I took off to Los Angeles in hopes of being a studio session singer because I felt more comfortable in the studio as opposed to being out there on the stage.  I sang backup for a rock band for a short stint while working on my own vocal demos and sang mostly for free on various projects, but did have an occasional paid job such as doing children’s voiceover work.  My first daughter Katelynn was born, and to make a living, I started a medical transcription service. I did this for several years, and then my second daughter Cassie was born. 

When Cassie was 13 months old, she had a “grand mal” seizure that lasted for an hour.  She was hospitalized at Wolfson Children’s Hospital for a week, and our world began to turn upside down.  She was also diagnosed with severe developmental delays. I quickly learned about her condition and the different medications she needed to minimize her seizures. My life was becoming consumed with trips to the neurologist and therapy appointments. I was all at once feeling I was playing the role of a nurse, while I felt the need of a new challenge in my life. I completed the second-degree bachelor program for nursing at Jacksonville University in 2002.

I had written a few songs before, but didn’t consider myself a songwriter per se, but a singer/vocalist.  This changed as I was going through the experience of caring for Cassie and dealing with all the struggles that often accompany caring for a special needs child. I felt compelled to begin creating music as a way to help deal with these experiences and maybe in the process have a positive effect on someone else’s life.

A couple of years after my third daughter Sophia was born, I went back to school, completing my master’s at University of North Florida in 2011. I started working as a hospital practitioner for the Liver Transplant Service at Mayo Clinic soon thereafter. I continued on at UNF to complete my doctorate in nursing practice (DNP) and graduated in December 2014.

It sounds like a neat, tidy story, but something totally unexpected happened in August of 2013.  I was diagnosed with breast cancer.  I had the privilege of knowing the breast cancer surgeon Dr. Sarah McLaughlin at Mayo and emailed her with my pathology results. The next week I underwent a mastectomy and lymph node dissection. Unfortunately, it had spread to 11 lymph nodes, putting me at stage 3 invasive cancer, though thankfully had not metastasized to other parts of my body. I completed chemo and radiation therapy and went back to work wearing a wig (thanks to In The Pink).  I have a family history of breast cancer, and my sister Lori had cancer of the uterus also. Genetic testing showed that I had a rare genetic variant that put me at risk for these types of cancers.

Despite the sometimes gloomy outlook one may have when learning the odds of surviving such a destructive disease, creating music throughout these years has enabled me to look beyond what is known and foster hope in spite of what is not known. I hope to now use the music to raise funds for breast cancer causes in an effort to finally put an end to the devastating illness.