One night recently, I was at a bar with a number of friends and at the opening strains of a particular song, one of my friends and I were like, “Oh yeah!” We clinked beers and nodded meaningfully to each other. I don’t know what his memory was, and it’s probably different from mine, but it was clearly important to both of us.
When “All For You” by Sister Hazel came out, I had just gotten out of the hospital after the accident and was in rehab. At that point, I felt small and weak and vulnerable. Most of my friends had returned to school and their lives (as they should have), and I was just in a different place.
At the rehab was a guy who became my best dearest friend. He had been though rehab before, after a brain aneurysm which crippled his left side. He recovered, but started drinking. One day, he was drunk and fell and hit his head,
One day, while he was home on break, he was drunk and then went downstairs to talk to his brother. He fell and hit his head, and that’s when I met him, as he went through rehab again.
He was exactly the friend I needed at the time. I wasn’t self-conscious around him, about my word-finding difficulties because he talked like I did. We were also together every day in rehab with the same people and could talk about it. He was an angel from God. So when I heard the refrain, I always thought of him.
“It’s hard to say what it is I see in you.
Wonder if I’ll always be with you.”
Part of it was that time in my life. Everything had changed, and I was still figuring out how much. He was not the kind of friend I normally had, but I liked being with and talking to him more than anyone else, and I did wonder if we’d always be together, be friends.
Do you know this song? Do you have any memories from or about it?
I Didn't Just Wake Up This Morning With A Craving 