Introducing Ruth —a sure-footed, independent 94-year-old lady with a bounce in her walk, who liked to attend programs in seniors’ homes across Chatham, Ontario. She was at my show in one facility one day, and again the next day at another. I guess that makes her a groupie!
Seeing her a second time in as many days, we chatted like familiar friends. In her rich English accent, she showed excitement when I promised to sing a couple numbers from English superstar Vera Lynn.
“We’ll Meet Again,” from 1939, is one of the most important songs from the war eras and a main feature of my Remembrance Day set. It’s hard to imagine how that song must have resonated in the Second World War as the young soldiers went off to fight, their loved ones left behind to worry. So prominent is We’ll Meet Again, it is annually played as the final song during the Liberation Day Concert in Amsterdam.
Dame Vera Margaret Lynn (née Welch, March 20, 1917 – June 18, 2020) was “the Forces’ Sweetheart.” In a music career spanning an incredible 96 years, Vera Lynn became the oldest living artist to top the UK Albums Chart, with her compilation “We’ll Meet Again: The Very Best of Vera Lynn,” released when she was 92.
We’ll Meet Again is part of history. Heroes were made to the music of Vera Lynn; souls were lost. The song is almost organic through its innumerable relationships, each poignant to the very core. Scarcely has there been a more profound song.
And it’s fun to play. The chording is clever, and the overlapping melody is genius. A great closer, it’s a song my audiences love. (Maybe it’ll be part of my repertoire when I visit you next summer. Respect and I have something brewing!)
In 2014, she released the collection “Vera Lynn: National Treasure.” Then in 2017 was “Vera Lynn 100” to commemorate her centenary, rising to #3 on the charts, making her the first centenarian performer to have a Top 10 album.
I can only guess how many hundreds of centenarians I’ve met. Each meeting is among the greatest privileges of my work entertaining seniors.
Yet We’ll Meet Again is a song for those with days enough to wait, a song about hope and longing, the future with a loved one’s return. It’s for the youthful, even if only at heart.
Vera Lynn died from pneumonia on June 18, 2020 at the age of 103. Queen Elizabeth II sent private condolences to the family while tributes were led by the Royal Family, treasured national icon that Vera Lynn was. The Band of the Coldstream Guards played We’ll Meet Again at her military funeral.
Back to the beginning of this story, and back to Chatham. It’s fairly far from where I live, so I only visit periodically. Sadly, subsequent visits left me only searching for Ruth, she was not in my audience again.
Will we meet again?
Brilliant informative read. I enjoyed it immensely.