Daring Young Man on the Flying Trapeze

I was less than two years old at the time, but what happened that morning is something that’s embedded in my memory forever – like a scene from a movie that you’ll never forget.

I was sitting at the bottom of the stairs in our basement, watching my Mom do laundry. She was singing softly as she took the clothes out of the dryer and folded them. The words of the song, as my young ears heard them, were something about a young man who flew through the air with the greatest of ease – and somehow, someone’s heart was broken.

Many years later, I discovered that this song – The Daring Young Man on the Flying Trapeze – is usually sung in a bouncy, jaunty way. But my Mom didn’t sing it like that. In her sweet voice, she sang it in a slow, plaintive way. And when I heard these words, I started to cry:

“Once I was happy but now I’m forlorn, like an old coat that is tattered and torn.”

I was just a toddler, barely speaking yet, so I didn’t know what the word forlorn meant. But the idea of someone being like an old worn-out coat made me sad. I sat on the basement steps and tearfully made her sing that song over and over again until I learned every word of the story that crushed my two-year-old heart.

My Mom was someone who saw the sweetness and tenderness that are buried within the heart of sadness. Perhaps it was the half-Irish side of her that gave her this appreciation for aching melancholy.

I inherited many things from her, and I’m pleased to say that this is one of her traits that found its way into my soul. After all these years, it still makes me sad to think of anyone being like an old coat that is tattered and torn.

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Photographer's Footnote: I took this photo during a trip to Ireland in 2008.