Music to laze around with, just like slipping into a warm, comfortable bath; bubbling with many stringed instruments and occasional live performances. (Visit homepage.)

December 17, 2007: Songs for a smiling man, and a sweet set from Hungrytown.


Ten weeks to the day after my mother, my dad, Ralph Thomas Trudel passed away at age 84.

My parents were a very close couple, even though my dad had spent nearly the last two years of his life in a nursing home apart from her. Ralph had broken his hip in early November. I believe he died of a broken heart (quite literally-- he had a heart attack a week after breaking his hip, and it's what broke down on him in the end).

Ralph nearly always had a smile on his face, even when times were tough. He'd had his share of those, raising five children on a middle class income, managing to give us all a decent home and love. In later life he was a survivor of prostate cancer, a broken neck, a broken shoulder, a stroke (and a few small ones) and various heart ailments. Somehow he managed that smile and a few bad jokes along the way to get himself through it all. I usually knew that he was doing okay when we'd have the following exchange: Me, "How are you feeling?" Dad, "Oh, with my hands."

Dad passed on Pearl Harbor Day, December, 7, 2007-- in some ways very appropriate for the proud WWII veteran that Ralph was. He and my mom Lois are at peace, and together again.

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