I first met Anne’s dad, Wayne Cernohous, in 2005 when I became the pastor at Holy Cross in Oakdale. “Mr. C” teaches piano (including my own son) at our church – he has for over 30 years! (You know you’ve got a legacy going when you’re teaching the kids of former students!) Anyway, as we got to know each other, Wayne shared the story of his daughter’s courageous battle with cancer in her 30’s. Before she passed away, Anne was determined to record an album of songs with her dad accompanying her on piano. The result is a touching tribute to her spirit that lives on in these songs. So… when Wayne heard we were putting together an album, and looking for local musicians to collaborate, he handed me a copy of Anne’s CD and said we could use whatever we wanted. The song I found myself listening to more than any other was: “I Saw Two Clouds At Morning.” This was originally a poem, written by John Gardiner Calkins in the 1820’s. Calkins was a journalist and poet who also met an untimely death in his mid-30s due to complications with tuberculosis. Being an outdoorsy kind of guy, I really connected with the images of clouds and flowing eddies.  And yet, more than that, I felt this was a fitting way to end the record, penned from the hearts of those whose craft was born out of hardship and death – yet full of promise and peace:

Such be your gentle motion
Till life’s last pulse shall beat
Like summer’s beam and summer’s stream
Float on in joy to meet a calmer sea
A purer sky where all is peace
Where all is peace

That is my wish for the families we are trying to help here.