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LISTEN TO ONE OF THE BEST IRISH SONGS OF THE DECADE

The song Danny Boy has been a big part of my childhood days. This is because it has been and is still is my mother’s favorite song. I don’t know why she knows so many Irish songs. I have to ask her that one day. But my fond memories of those blissful days were of her singing to us Danny Boy. She has a melodious, soprano voice and every time she is requested to sing, Danny Boy would always be foremost in her list. She even composed a native song to the tune of Danny Boy, and the folks out there in the hinterlands of Kalinga learned how to sing this beautiful Irish song. I have just heard Deanna Durbin from you tube and that was exactly how my mother sang it.


My relatives from the mother side are all good singers and I would like to believe I had inherited some of this talent for singing because I can carry a tune too…lol....

There are various versions to the song and I don't know who the original singer was. Anyone who knows? Ken Armstrong, perhaps you can help us with this one? Thanks.

Listen to the song as performed by Cliff Richard and Helmut Lotti- two of the world's best singers - and be refreshed and invigorated. You have to play it twice so it would download properly. Enjoy!

Video from Siroceandeep



DANNY BOY
(Lyrics)

Oh Danny boy, the pipes, the pipes are calling
From glen to glen, and down the mountain side
The summer's gone, and all the roses dying
'Tis you, 'tis you must go and I must bide.

But come ye back when summer's in the meadow
Or when the valley's hushed and white with snow
'Tis I'll be here in sunshine or in shadow
Oh Danny boy, oh Danny boy, I love you so.

But when you come, and all the flowers are dying
If I am dead, as dead I well may be
You'll come and find the place where I am lying
And kneel and say an "Ave" there for me.

And I shall hear, though soft you tread above me.
And all my grave will warmer, sweeter be
for you will bend and tell me that you love me
and I shall sleep in peace until you come to me.

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One Decision: 12th Story for the Inspirational Book

By: NANCY McCARROLL

Everyone has a story to tell, and listening to some of these recordings is fascinating. You can even buy a book of interviews (see last paragraph below for details).

The interviews result in a three to four minute verbal story. To give myself some structure in preparation for telling my story, I wrote this, which I have titled "ONE DECISION." It is factual, and I have taken out close to forty years of emotion in order to capsulize what I want to say in this message. Here is my NPR story:

one of Nancy's oil paintings

This is about a decision made after the birth of my physically handicapped daughter in 1970. The doctors attending to her in her first hours of life gave her father and me the decision of either doing no medical intervention with her death imminent within a few painful months, or to immediately begin intensive medical treatment. The physicians left the room with this question to be answered by us, young people in college, working, never having planned on being parents, much less to a child with grave problems.

We were advised there was no guarantee of success in any way relating to her quality of life. My husband’s inclination was to let nature take its course and not intervene medically: we were young and we were not through with our formal education, and since she probably never walk, her life would be very difficult for all of us. (I was a sophomore in college, and we were both taking as many classes and working as many hours as we could to help defray student loans and living expenses.)

But the path we chose, and the decision made, was to start trying to save her life immediately. We decided to let the doctors do what they could for her.

And she lived. And she grew up, although most of her adolescent and adult years were spent hospitalized due to shunt malfunctions and systemic infections.

There are more than a few ironies in this story. One was that Julie’s father and I both DID finish our educations (he got a PhD and I have a Master’s degree). So her life did not hamper that goal. And another irony is that Julie’s father died of cancer over twenty years ago, while Julie is still living today.

Which is not to say that over the years, her life has been extremely happy or in any way carefree. She has had over one hundred surgeries relating to complications brought on by her birth defect. She has been depressed to the point of trying to end her own life; she had virtually no childhood friends her own age.

In a few weeks, Juliet is facing another very serious operation. She has been in bed the better part of three years with skin ulcerations and infections. But in spite of the heartache, there have been positive, bittersweet successes…

1: She has worked for as a receptionist and lived alone, using public transportation to get her to and from work while in a wheelchair;

2: Julie completed high school and then college with a four year degree -- this in spite of many long months of hospitalization;

3 : Julie has resided independently both as a single and married woman;

4: Julie has maintained an eleven year long, loving marriage to a man having the same handicap of spina bifida;

5: She moved across country from her native state, and then she and her husband built their handicap accessible home five years ago on land which her husband purchased many years ago as an investment;

6: She (and her husband) are members of a strong faith-based Christian community. I’m told they are of spiritual importance in that church group;

7: Julie aspired to be a journalist, worked at a local newspaper as a college intern and had several sequential articles published. She currently writes to the editor of her local newspaper in South Carolina, expresses her opinions (especially about the problems that handicapped people encounter), and has had her letters published in the Charlotte Observer;

8: She and her husband are the loving owners of an eight year old frisky Yorkshire terrier;

9: Julie is a loving, generous, stubborn, sweet person with an amazing coping mechanism of denial.

She has become the person she is, in part, because of caring adults coming into her life by way of a loving family, excellent medical care, good surrogate fathers, a decent education, mental health assistance, the religious community, paid caregivers, and adult friends. And her own will to live and thrive are, of course, part of her essence.

And so all this has happened, at great financial and emotional expense. Her determinism and desire to keep living came out of ONE DECISION years ago to proceed with medical intervention. Julie's life has played out in far reaching ways that I cannot fathom. But it MUST have been the right decision to try and stave off hydrocephalous and infection in those first hours after her birth, because all of the lives she has touched have been significantly, and I believe positively, changed by knowing Juliet.

In a nutshell, this story is about perseverance and love, and how each person's life is important and part of the structure behind the doors where we live. Maybe more than a few will find it a valuable listen.

A compilation of NPR Story Corps stories can be purchased here.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR


Nancy McCarroll is a woman of many talents. She is a Master's Degree holder in Health Administration and had also earned her Baccalaureate Degree in Rehabilitation Counseling. She's an artist, and a generous woman who volunteers a lot of her time to local community services, like the NPR Corps, from which this article was derived.

WOW! Isn't she amazing?

Her blog, "Arts, Crafts and Favorites," features some of her works of art. Yes, she dabs in watercolor and oil, and you know what? she also plays in National Scrabble Tournaments abroad.
Read her complete profile in this link.

ENTRECARD MARKET : My Call for Articles for an Upcoming Inspirational Book

This is a call for articles , short stories, poems, essays, drawings for a book. I am still in the process of gathering Inspirational Stories from Bloggers all over the World. I will be compiling them in August into one self - published book.

If your contribution is accepted, your article will be published in my blog and in the book, and you'll be given one complimentary copy of the book where your article appears(for free). You'll still own the copyright to your written material.

I will be awarding 5,000 EC credits to contributors.

I still need 9 articles, so folks I'm eagerly waiting for your contributions.
Here's my Market listing at Entrecard. To know more, watch the video below.

I'm Joining Big Mak's Blog Contest -" What Something Big Are You Expecting This 2009?"

To join the contest, I have to answer this interesting question from Makoy .

I always try to be an optimist. I have some big plans this 2009; and these are the following I'm expecting to accomplish:

1. On August, I should be able to publish the book entitled "Inspirational Stories From Bloggers all Over the World". There would be at least 20 authors from different parts of the globe; so I'll have to come up with 21 copies. Additional copies will printed as they are ordered.

2. On September, I will also publish a magazine type collection of poems from three authors: me, Dr. Lorenzo Bernardino a.k.a -Zorlone and Roy dela Cruz. The tentative title is "Trilogy of Poems". This will be a dream come true for the three of us. We had always wanted to see our poems in print.

I did have some of my creative works publish in some local mags and in our school journals, but I see this as something different from the rest because it will feature a collection from each of us. Wouldn't that be exciting?

3. I also plan to have all my online articles categorized and book bound, even if it's soft bound first. Then eventually , I'll have them hard bound -complete with pictures.

These are big things for me because for the first time, I would be venturing into publishing my creative work in volumes. I'm keeping my spirits high. I know I can do it. It just takes determination and optimism to be able to achieve them.

Wish me luck guys! and thanks Makoy for giving me the chance to express my plans.

And of course, I hope I would win in your contest!

if you want to join Makoy's BIG contest visit his blog - The Certified Pinoy Blogger . It is a unique contest you should not miss! And it is very simple to join.

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