)(( hannah mello ))(

Anniversary 33.

Today, August 11, 2007 is the Anniversary 33
of a very special couple in this life of mine.



Bruce Gregory & Lynnette Marie.
My parents.





Together they have been:
- health store employees
- wedding singers
- monthly variety-show-style concert directors and performers
- choir directors
- hippie folk, acoustic musicians
- humanitarians (to orphans, prisoners, developmentally disabled, the poor and estranged)
- school teachers (for a short time together-- otherwise, my dad was the bus driver, my mom the teacher)
- marriage counselors & mentors
- street musicians
- music caregivers in rest-homes for the elderly
- christian ministers
- yoga class instructors (Bruce = the musical content, Lynnette = the instruction)
- songwriters, recording artists, producers, arrangers, lyricists (and Lynnette has even been a choreographer, while Bruce has been short-story writer and poet)
- writers (plays/musicals, speeches, poetry)
- players of instruments (Bruce = guitar, piano, mandolin, bass, percussion; Lynnette = guitar, dulcimer, all recorders, flute, penny whistle, ocarina, auto harp, concertina, percussion)
- support staff for the developmentally disabled
- parents (starting 9 years after marriage until this very day...)

They haven't done everything together, but 99.9 percent of it alongside each other.
Living life as a team.
Living life with the same priorities:
1. Music
2. Spiritual Journey
3. Each other

They didn't even want kids to interfere with those 3 priorities.
But then--
A good friend had good advice at a good time.
They decided.
Here is the one (yours truly) that has become priority 4.

Because of being #4 (not 1,2, or 3), I have been toted to countless:
- weddings, weddings, weddings
- concerts/shows/gigs in halls, coffee shops, bars, houses, forests, backyards, churches, auditoriums
- houses of musicians, friends, families, and to-be-wed-couples (often strangers)
- church services concerts, functions, potlucks, retreats
- rest-homes for the elderly
- in-house and professional recording studios
- music stores and warehouses
- guitar fix-it-shops
- PA stores
- street performances (the most frequent site being in SF-- the corner of Market & something)

They have dwelt within the walls of a:
- Saratoga house (6 mo.)
- Quince Avenue house (5 years)
- Campbell apartment (6 mo.)
- San Tomas Avenue cottage (6 mo.)
- Mello Mountain cabin without electricity (12 years, my first 9 years of life)
- Mountain Brickhouse without a bathroom (2 years)
- Country Duplex where you couldn't flush toilet paper (2 years)
- Lynnette's mom's in transition (2 weeks)
- Livermore apartment (2 years)
- Livermore condominium (6.5 years)
- Lynnette's mom's in transition (6 weeks)
- Santa Cruz mobile home (2 years)










This lovely couple-- ever so different from each other (Bruce, the writer hermit & Lynnette, the bubbly songbird) -- have survived:

- an after-7-years separation and almost-divorce
- belief system changes (from new age philosophy to christian theology + some colorful shifts inside both those worlds)
- 33 years of almost-moneyless-ness
- knee, foot, and dental surgeries
- bedridden dehabilitation
- one pregnancy
- 2 recorded albums, 1 more recent demo
- a lot of 4-wheel drive Subaru's and a couple Ford Taurus'

My generation has a hard time looking at the thing called "marriage" and seeing something that can actually exist.
Looking at all this Anniversary 33 celebrates,
maybe, just maybe, there is something that exists called marriage.

Some friends of mine just celebrated Anniversary 6. They sent out an email to their friends and family with the subject "6 Years of Grace" and attached to it a 2 page yearbook of sorts of their life together-- its ups-and-downs charted with words and memories and a few pictures. I am amazed at lasting love when it shows up in our broken world.

The year that I was born, 1983, a certain song was copyrighted and recorded. A song that my wedding singer parents must have sung at 1000+ weddings-- most of them with me present (in infant, child, or teenage form). This song called is "Without You". For me, over the years, it has come to stand alone as a love song (the second being Justin McRoberts' "Alone Together", the third-- the cheesy but forte-- Steven Curtis Chapman's "I Will Be Here").

I called my parents today, having one of the most meaningful, fun talks with them individually for extended periods. (I love growing up; having an adult-to-adult relationship with my parents!!) I told them both that I always think of and sing that song. I feel its message deeply. I love it. But, I only realized today, on this their anniversary, that it really paints a picture of them 2 specifically-- their specific ebb and flow of life together, their 33 year love.

I give you, the song.

"Without You"
sung by Wendy Francisco & Mary Rice (1983)

If I could have the ocean waves before me
And I could have the mountains rise behind me
If I could have the beauty and the riches of the world
But I'd still be very empty without you
Yes, I'd still be very empty without you
Lalalala- Without You

For I could have 200 standing 'round me
Yes, I could have 2,000 listen to my song
Yes, I could have 200 standing 'round me
But I'd still be all alone without you
Yes, I'd still be all alone without you
Lalalala- Without You

Or I could be a poor man in a desert storm
With nothing but a beggar's coat to keep me warm
Yes, I could have no place to call my own
But I'd still be very happy just with you
Yes, I'd still be very happy just with you

Yes, I'd still be very happy
Yes, I'd still be very happy
Yes, I'd still be very happy
Just with you
Lalalala- Just with you
Just with you

_________________________________


A toast to Bruce Gregory & Lynnette Marie Mello. To their Anniversary 33 and its shaking legacy. Cheers to the all that life can be when shared. !!! :)

posted by )(( hannah mello ))( @ 7:51 PM