A Happy Message from Shannon

Remember Ann Landers telling people that finding a penny meant someone in heaven was thinking of you (pennies from heaven)? Perhaps we need some little gimmick to feel we still have a link to a lost loved one. That was my feeling after my sister Shannon died so suddenly last December.
Feeling really sad one day, I tried to call my sister Karen. I needed someone to cheer me up and hoped I could do the same for her. When I couldn't reach her, I turned on my computer to check for family messages. Maybe that would distract me from my sadness.
For the first time in months, I clicked on Pandora, the online music site. Maybe music would soothe me. The first song that started playing was Tom Chapin singing "This is the Happiest Song I Know."
Tom Chapin was a favorite performer of Shannon's at the Walnut Valley Festival. Every year Shannon and her family worked at the festival and came to know some of the performers personally.
Was it only a coincidence that one of Tom Chapin's songs came up first? He is not mainstream radio fare. Out of the hundreds of songs that he has written, wasn't it fortuitous that "Happiest" was the one that played at that moment when I needed an emotional boost. Coincidence, maybe.... Thanks, Shannon, for trying to cheer me up.
Since that time, I've listened to the song over and over trying to soak up the message. It plays in my head at times, unsummoned, but tied to memories of Shannon. Shannon had a great sense of humor and planting in my head "This is the Happiest Song I Know" to intertwine with memories of her might be just the thing she would do.

You can hear it at: http://www.razorandtie.com/label/artistdetail.asp?artist=412
The songs are at the bottom of the page. Happiest is #9. It plays using Windows Media Player.

Here's the chorus:
This is the happiest song I know,
Guaranteed to make me smile.
This is the happiest song I know,
Carried me many a mile.
This is the happiest song I know,
Guaranteed to make me grin.
This is the happiest song I know,
Open up and let it in.

Also listen to #7, "I'm the Only Me." It's wonderful too, when you think of a special person.

Story ID:	2423
Written by:	Virginia Allain (bio, link, contact, other stories)
Organization:	none
Story type:	In Memory
Location:	Poinciana FL USA
Year:	2007
Person:	Shannon Hyle