Yes…Indeed!

I can name exactly one…one, Joe Cocker song.  No, don’t roll your eyes.  The only music I have heard for the last six years was played on my mental jukebox and when I double checked that playlist this morning, the name Joe Cocker only appeared once.  I was checking today because I have had a version of You Are So Beautiful stuck on my playlist for a few days and I was wondering if I might be missing the flip side of a 45 RPM.  No apparently not… It’s Valentine’s Day and I’ve got that one Joe Cocker tune on a loop in my head.

You are so beautiful
To me…
You are so beautiful
To me…
Can’t you see?
You’re everything I hoped for!
You’re everything I need!
You are so beautiful
To me…

In days gone by, I used to tell a story about how Pam and I first met.  After years of her head shake, shake, shaking through each story, I have relabeled that memory as the beginning of a love story. I relabeled it because she could always deny that my story reflected the first time that we actually met but she can’t deny my side of a love story…

September 1975
Paschal High School
Fort Worth, TX

I was at my locker half-way down the hall.  My best friend rounded the corner into the hallway walking next to a beautiful girl.  They approached me and my friend introduced me to a freshman with long blonde hair, an endearing laugh, and sparkles in her eyes. 

Just a few months earlier, in January of 1975, Joe Cocker had hit the charts with You are so Beautiful, so it wasn’t a surprise that after our brief meeting, I headed off to class humming a familiar tune.

You are so beautiful
To me…

Fast forward a few years…I found myself standing at the altar of Robert Carr Chapel looking down the aisle at the most beautiful bride that I have ever seen.

You are so beautiful
To me…

Can’t you see?

Ok.  This is where the head shaking comes in.  I pulled up the lyrics today to check spelling, punctuation, and accuracy and was surprised to learn that Can’t you see? appears in each verse although my mental jukebox had Yes indeed in the second stanza.  I can ‘hear’ Joe Cocker stretching Yes, indeed into a five-syllable phrase.

How could I be wrong about that?  I guess now I understand all of that head shaking.

Can’t you see?

Late April/Early May 1991

Pam was, as it is said…‘great with child’.  She had found herself in an awkward position on her back and was having a difficult time getting up.  She asked for a hand and when I turned to offer some help, I looked in her eyes and saw the beginning of a wave of tears.  I helped her up and she buried her face in my shirt.  How can you love me looking like this? she sobbed.  I don’t remember my exact words but…I do know this:

You are everything I hoped for!

June 2017
Chili’s Restaurant

The server stopped at our table and asked for a drink order.  As is customary, in just a few minutes she returned with the drinks, pulled out an order pad, looked at us and mouthed the words What would you like to eat?  I thought one of the girls had tipped the server to tease me about losing my hearing. But when I looked at them, they were ordering their meals.  Oh no…

Fast forward to Super Bowl Sunday, 2023

A server approaches our table and asks for our order.  Pam orders our meal and when the server responds with a question, Pam signs the question to me, waits for my answer, and then verbally answers the server.

You’re everything I need!

It has now been forty-six and a half years since the beginning of that love story.  I can no longer hear her endearing laugh, her blonde hair has given way to silver, but I still see the sparkle in her eyes…and

You are so beautiful
To me…

Yes, indeed!

Happy Valentine’s Day, 2023.

Thanks for listening!

Your friend,

KBM

Kevin Medlin
kevin@mysilentpew.com