Over the past decade we became good friends with a gentleman who regularly attended our music shows. When we met, he was in his mid-80’s going on 39, incredibly fit thanks to daily work-outs, and his positive outlook on life was infectious.

He rarely spent evenings at home, preferring to be out watching live music while enjoying a pint or two. This routine continued until his 96th year when a slow growing cancer caught up to him and he became housebound. Nonetheless, his optimism continued, and he adjusted as best he could, until his pain became intolerable. With no hope for improvement and unwilling to exist in a morphine fog, he decided to pursue a doctor assisted death.

Medical Assistance In Dying (MAID) had just become legal in Canada a year earlier. We didn’t know much about it, so when he asked us to help with arrangements, we weren’t sure where to start. And frankly not even sure how we felt about the decision. His palliative care doctor referred us to information online, and addressed all our questions and concerns. In the spirit of someone who enjoyed life so much, we wanted to help make his passing as positive an experience as possible for him. So, we put our heads together and planned a morning singalong with dear friends and family present on the day of.

It was a beautiful sunny autumn day. We arrived early to find him dressed and receiving a shave from his caregiver. The shirt he’d chosen to wear was a wild patterned one we’d picked up for him a few weeks earlier after he lamented that his wardrobe was “boring”. The shirt coincidentally matched a mural at a nearby shopping mall, and he asked us to push him over there in his wheelchair and “take a photo in front of it for posterity”. Afterwards, we took the long way home so he could enjoy the outdoors. By the time we returned, the rest of the invited guests had arrived. We all sang together for about an hour in his livingroom. The mood was light as we all tried our best to conceal our sadness knowing this would be the last time we spent with him.

The doctors arrived around noon to carry out the procedure. A final assessment was done, to ensure that our friend was still of sound mind and still wanted to go ahead with it. He emphatically assured them he did. When asked if he had anything he’d like to say to us all, he thought for a moment waved his hand and said ‘God bless you all’, which made us all smile because he was not a religious man. He was then escorted to his bed where the doctors prepared him for the last stage of the process and shortly after, we were all invited in.

Just before administering the drugs, the doctor asked our friend if he would like music in the room, to which he responded “YES!” Dwight went to the livingroom and grabbed his guitar. When he returned, he spontaneously started playing the song ‘Hallelujah’, by Leonard Cohen, one of our friend’s favourite songs, which ironically, we hadn’t gotten around to in our singalong earlier. I started singing and others joined in.

Somewhere after the first verse and chorus, our friend closed his eyes and peacefully drifted off. Somehow, we made it through all four verses and choruses and then we all let our tears flow. I’m still not sure how everyone in the room feels about MAID but we all agreed that our friend made the right decision for him, and that he left this life surrounded by the two things most important to him…the people he loved and music. I think he would have liked this song, especially because it includes the accordion!

 

The inspirations for songs can come from almost anywhere. And equally diverse is the length of time that it can take to complete a song. Some seem to write themselves in minutes while others can take years.  

Sweet Ida is a mix of both.  

I first got the idea for the song, the title anyway, probably 20 years ago. We were at the St Lawrence Market on a Saturday morning in the late summer as the season’s apple crop was just starting to come off the trees.  I remember reviewing all the little green quart boxes and being in awe of the magical variety of names announcing their bounty. Fujis, Mutsus, Cortlands, Honey Crisps, Spys, Jonagolds. We had grown up on the Prairies far from the fruit belt so our annual diet of Spartans, Red Delicious, Macs and the occasional Golden Delicious seemed well, Spartan after a while.    

There was one name and apple that really jumped out and I quickly wrote it down in my little lyric note book that many songwriters carry.  I remember it as Sweet Ida but it was probably an Ida Red, the songwriter’s mind was already channeling possibilities! The name stayed in my notebook for years and endured several dead end writing attempts. I was missing the right inspiration.  

That came many years later at a gig at the PAL Celebrity Club. That night, we had included the Travellers’ version of Woody Guthrie’s ‘This Land’ in our set. Who should we meet at the break other than Sid Dolgay, one of the original Travellers. Sid introduced us to his wife Ida and as we became friends, we learned more about their wonderful and long relationship. Sid and I had a lot in common including that we both had lived on Machray Avenue in Winnipeg...30 years and 30 blocks apart!  

I had finally met an Ida as sweet as the Ida Red and the lyrics quickly fell in to place. It was a simple love story based on Sid and Ida though I did change some details so that it became more historical fiction.  I choose a very basic musical part so the song wasn’t cluttered with changes. This created a lot of space for the story to nest in and stand out. I also thought that a nice 3 /4 waltz time would create a nice nostalgic feel.  

When we recorded it for the ‘For A Moment’ CD, we also kept the production simple, Sue and I on vocals, myself on guitar and accordion, Dave Lang on double bass and Kevin Quain on piano. I call it a grey wool socks by the fireplace production.  

Best of all, I had the opportunity to play the song for Ida and Sid at the Celebrity Club bringing the song full circle!