Dedication

DEDICATION

Dedicated to Tina Su Cooper, a U.S. woman whose husband, my editor Douglas Winslow Cooper, in his article entitled “Like a Plaintive Melody” wrote [in 2014] the following words expressing his profound grief though full of love to Tina Su Cooper, his wife:


Most mornings I sing to my beloved wife, as she lies immobile in the hospital bed we have at our home:

You were meant for me. I was meant for you.
Nature patterned you and when she was done,
You were all the sweet things rolled up in one.
You’re like a plaintive melody
That never lets me free,
For I’m content the angels must have sent you
And they meant you just for me.
******************
“You Were Meant for Me (Broadway Melody of 1940)” by Nacio Herb Brown and Arthur Freed; lyrics © EMI Music Publishing Co.
******************
This song captures the bitter-sweet nature of our current situation, happy to be together, sometimes sad that Tina’s ill-health has limited her so greatly. She has been quadriplegic and ventilator-dependent, fed and medicated through a gastric tube, for the past ten years, and she will be so for as long as she lives.