Real people with real problems...

[john.mcgarity]

...to paraphrase the intro to "Are You Sad" from Live. Bear with me, I feel a great deal on the tip of my tongue. An old friend of mine, and his wife, lost their newborn daughter Lola yesterday morning. Theirs was a very complicated pregnancy. Rebekah, the wife, had carried Lola to full term, but almost immediately after getting pregnant the problems began for the new parents to be. The baby had no amniotic fluid in the sac. She was advised almost weekly for 9 months to terminate the pregnancy. Pro-life and pro-choice issues don't exist in the post here, so politics gets left at the door on this. The point is that Jason and Rebekah defied odds, and Lola survived for 9 months. I don't know what kind of deformities or defects she was born with, though they were cautioned that she likely would. All I know for certain is that on February 6th, 2013, at 9:37am Central Time, Lola was born. And she enriched the lives of her proud parents for one hour before passing on.

The relevance that this has here is that my IMMEDIATE reaction was to find the music to say the things that I suddenly could not. I put on Spiritual Machines, far and away the most emotional OLP record for me personally. And while on repeat, I listened these songs that Raine and the guys wrote that resonate with hope and love and pain and loss and the unknown. Then, for good measure, I played "Thief", and dedicated it personally to Jason and Rebekah and little 5lb 1oz Lola. I know their grief too well, and I wanted to share with the people here who appreciate this band of musicians the way that I do, just how important their music can be. Thanks for listening to my poor rambling. Much love to you all...

[paintedbynumbers]

I am so sorry for the loss. I cannot imagine the pain that all involved are feeling. Such a sad story to hear.

[myownsatellite]

So many of my friends have lost babies, it's hard to believe a pregnancy can go RIGHT anymore. I'm so sorry for their loss, I hope in time they can heal. It takes a long time to get over the death of a child.