Missing the Music and Musicians of One Voice

Driving home the other day I heard an interview with members of a pop band who were retiring after 31 years of musical performances. As they talked about what they would miss about their musical life together, I started thinking about what I've been missing since the final One Voice concert two years ago. At first I hoped we would get back together but after so much time has passed, I doubt we will sing together again until we sing together in heaven.

I have so many great memories of the times spent with this group of singers. In the beginning I would bring Emily and Joey with me to practice. They were too young to stay home alone.

The first mission trip the group took was to Hawaii. We participated in Musicians on Mission. The whole group didn't get to go and one person was a new recruit who had never sung with us before. A couple of things have stayed with me from that trip. At one concert we traveled a long way through pineapple fields to a small church. There were about as many people in the congregation as in our group. Some of those sweet people later met us at the airport as we were leaving and brought each of us two boxes of ripe pineapples! Those were the best pineapples I have ever had.

Another thing I remember from that trip was traveling to a fabric shop, several historical sites, and a museum complex on the city bus. It cost only 60 cents to ride all over on the city bus. I went by myself because no one else was interested in museums. As I returned to the hotel on the bus I looked into a woman's shopping bag and saw a live duck! Someone's dinner, I guess.

I miss the concerts and traveling together, even when we got lost or came home late. Some concerts I hope to always remember. We sang in Nashville and we couldn't see the audience because of the lighting. We sang 'Shut De Door' and the lights were blacked out. The crowd roared. What a feeling.

Another wonderful concert was in a huge, unheated church in China. I don't think many, if any, could understand our songs as we were singing in English. But as we sang 'When I Survey' and did the motions where our arms were outstretched, there was a reaction that made us feel that the words were understood by everyone there.

Others will remember different things from our practices, concerts, and trips. There was the time Troy's hat was rescued when we were whale watching in Alaska, the Irish Coffee that enabled Dot to play the piano as never before or since, and the unsanctioned trip to the flea market in Honolulu. Singing in One Voice was an experience like no other. I miss the songs and the singers.