My mother’s voice
For the past decade or so, I made a point of not deleting voicemails from my mom. Knowing she wouldn’t be around forever, I wanted to have a way to still hear her voice.
But last spring as I prepared to retire, I “wiped” my work phone without saving the messages. Darn it! If only I’d thought to ask any one of my sons for help, surely we could have preserved those precious files.
But I wanted audio, too.
Happily, something even better has turned up.
Dad found a cassette tape featuring Mom reading a selection of her poems.
I’m not sure where and when the cassette was recorded. The label has Mom’s name written on it, along with the name of her dear friend Mary Fleming. It sounds like a radio show; it was recorded in the 1980s.
Mom introduces, then reads, her poem “David” in this audio clip. Afterwards, Mary (an English teacher) discusses the sonnet with Mom:
Mom and Mary were college chums (Dad specified she was “an excellent friend”) who stayed in close touch until Mary passed away in 1998.
When I first listened to the long-forgotten audio cassette, I wondered if the playback machine was operating a bit fast. The voice didn’t sound quite right. But then I realized that the recording was mom’s true voice. Tears filled my eyes as I recognized her voice from four decades ago: a vibrant young voice, her lilting poetry-reading voice.
Today is “National Great Poetry Reading Day.” Thanks to son John for digitizing the cassette tape for me (I donated my dusty old boom box to the cause) and to son James for helping me find a good audio-editing app to download (sorry I didn’t use it, though).
April is National Poetry Month, and the month of Mom’s birth. With poetry, Mom always had a voice. And it will last forever.
“David” © 1949 Joan Cassidy Vayo. All rights reserved.
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