Yesterday afternoon some of us played at the 12th annual Hospice of the Rapidan's Butterfly Celebration at the Prince Michel vineyard over in Madison County. We've been providing music for this event for something like eight or nine years and it's always special. There are children's activities, a quilt raffle and a social time leading up to a program with a speaker talking about losing a loved one and what that means for those living with the loss. People have made donations for the names of those who have passed on to be read aloud, and then butterflies are released.
Because of the threat of rain, everything but the butterfly release itself was held indoors, and then the butterfly release was outside, and minutes later the rain started.
Since just about everyone at this event has recently lost a loved one or is a hospice volunteer, it's a very special audience. In the lead up to the program itself, we played some of the Dixieland we can do without the trombone and tenor sax, along with some big band tunes. During the program itself we played "Over the Rainbow" just before the reading of the names, and then I fingerpicked guitar during the reading of the names and then the butterflies were released.
It could have been my imagination, but with the opening bars of "Over the Rainbow" I felt an outpouring of emotion in the room from the crowd. Afterwards we had a number of people come up, some with tears in their eyes, to tell us how much the music meant. For the music therapist in me, this event is a wonderful blend of performance and therapy.
