Andrew honours mother’s memory with ‘LARCC 40/40/40 campaign’
Musician, singer and songwriter Andrew Lawlor from Delvin has released a new song, ‘Silver in Your Hair’ in memory of his mother June and in aid of LARCC in Multyfarnham.
He is asking 40 people to donate €40 each over 40 days in support of the LARCC centre.
In a moving interview with the Westmeath Examiner this week, Andrew explained that his mother died on September 11, 40 years ago, from cancer. “I wrote the song in early September and decided to use it to get a few quid for LARCC whose fundraising has suffered during the pandemic,” he said.
Andrew has been using social media and emailing people asking them to support his campaign – the LARCC 40/40/40 campaign.
The recording has been enriched by the involvement of Anna Fisher-Roberts, a flautist from Arizona who he met on a wet, windy Sunday night in Doolin, County Clare in early August.
Anna graciously agreed to record some flute tracks for him in Boston, Massachusetts and sent them via WhatsApp.
“I was blown away by how she cut to the very heart of the lyrics using a process she calls Word Painting, and her playing lifted the song to another level,” said Andrew.
You can listen to the song on Andrew’s Bandcamp page at andrewlawlor.bandcamp.com or on his Facebook music page.
https://andrewlawlor.bandcamp.com/track/silver-in-your-hair
Silver in Your Hair tells the story of Andrew’s personal 40-year journey, as child who has lost a parent, growing to adulthood and eventually finding peace with his grief.
He has dreamed of his mother sporadically, two or three times a year, since she died. Always, in his dreams June was the 40-year-old woman he remembered from 1981.
He explained how waking from those dreams was always difficult. “In the brief moments between sleep and wake, my mother was alive. The sudden realisation that I had been dreaming always left me disconcerted, feeling all over again the pain of her loss.”
Earlier this year, a friend of his who lost her father 17 years ago told him that she called such dreams visits.
Although he is not a spiritual person, it gave Andrew great comfort to think of the dreams of his mother in this way.
Then, in June of this year, around the time of his mother’s 80th birthday, he dreamed of her again. “For the first time in almost 40 years, I dreamed of my mother being the age she would have been now,” he said.
“In my dream, my mother was a sweet, silver-haired, 80-year-old woman, sitting in a chair by the fire in my childhood home.
“On waking from this dream, I did not feel the usual discombobulation or grief that I had always felt before. I simply felt at peace.”
Andrew moved to Delvin in 2003 and he and his wife, Deirdre, used to run the Coffee Boutique there. They held regular music sessions in their coffee shop to raise funds for LARCC and other charities.
Now Andrew works as a carer in Trim. He was a late-comer to the music industry having only started to write songs about three years ago, but already he has penned 60 or so songs. He plays at trad and folk sessions and is looking forward to gigging again soon.
The LARCC cancer retreat centre that provides vital services, counselling and support for those living with cancer, their families and the bereaved, is close to his heart. “I’m very fond of LARCC, it’s a great organisation,” Andrew said.
To find out more about their work and to contribute to the fundraiser visit www.cancersupport.ie. and ensure families get the support they need during a critical time in their lives.
Andrew thanks all who support the campaign for helping him to honour his mother “in such an important and impactful way”.