Prince

I don't know about y'all but the last ten days of April 2016 were ROUGH for me. And the first two days of May were just as HARD. Prince passed on the 21st of April. The following evening my father-in-law, the bravest man I have ever known, passed. My mother-in-law asked me to eulogize him within hours of his passing. Then I turned 50 on the 27th. All the parish priests were on convocation that week so the Funeral Mass was delayed until May 2nd. The family all wore red - he loved his wife in red - and I got special permission to wear a purple Guayabera shirt to honor Prince as I stepped upon the altar and said 

"Dearly beloved, we are gathered here today to get through this thing called life."

A spark of recognition and a few stray laughs and even an inappropriate clap were heard before I continued

"And that became a whole lot harder when (my Fasther-in-law) passed ten days ago. He was my father-in-law for the past 29 years and for the last year, he was my only father. He was the the bravest man I have ever known and I hope he'll forgive me for the secrets I am about to spill."

I've been asked not to share the rest of the eulogy due to its sensitive personal nature but I got to honor and pay my respects to three men who loomed large in my life all in the course of a single minute.

I have avoided the web since the 21st and only just opened my Chrome browser last night after my wife commented that after two hectic weeks, things were starting to get back to "normal." I don't really care how or why Prince passed. For the first ten days since his passing, I listened to everything I have by him, a few hundred songs, both officially released and not so officially released through Spotify via Local Files. The shared sadness, sympathies and condolences from friends and family overwhelmed my text and email apps. I checked all my favorite sites for their Prince remembrances and tributes and proudly share those links below. Words fail me still, even two weeks later so I'm going to call this my tribute and leave it at that.

• the soft rock kid - 1976-1985: My Favorite Decade
• Martin @ Martin's View
• John Book - This Is Book's Music
• Jeff Gemmill - Old Grey Cat
• Rob Goodman - Rob's Wall Of Music
• jb - The Hits Just Keep On Comin'
• Bob Lefsetz - Lefsetz Letter (Bob did two in a row)
• DJ Richie Powell - Fun With Vinyl (Richie even made the local news)
• DJ Paul T - Burning The Ground

One last thing:

Today would have been my father's 70th birthday. Without him, I wouldn't be here and, if you are a regular Hideaway viewer, you know I miss him daily.