Neil Diamond Does It To Me Too.

As I was driving to work today, Neil Diamond's song "You make it feel like Christmas" came on the radio. Normally I laugh whenI hear it because any Diamond fan will tell you that Neil is about as Jewish as a NY Goldsmith... and here he is cooin' about Christmas.
But today, the song didn't make me laugh, in fact, I almost had to pull over to choke back the tears. You see, my mom was a HUGE Neil Diamond fan and this past September 19th marked one year since my mom's death. Ironically, September 19th was also the day my daughter was baptized, so life it seems, does come full circle. And since my mom never got to meet Madison, it was very special to me.
When I spoke at my mom's funeral, I made a point of speaking about her passion for this Jewish Jazz Singer since his music was such a large part of her life. Not only did she love his music, she loved HIM as well. She would always say, "He can park his Yarmalka under my bed any day."

I literally grew up jammin to Neil. I can remember before I went to school, being home with my mom during the day and helping her clean the house. She would go get her 45 of "Hot August Night" and crank that baby while we danced, dusted and vacuumed. I always looked forward to cleaning the house with her because thats when she really came to life.
My mom and I never had that "mother/daughter" relationship where we exchanged beauty tips, shoes, and secrets about boys. She wore Wrangler jeans, Easy Spirit shoes and Harley shirts, though she was a looker back in the day. Think Lisa Lobe with the cole rimmed glasses.
I'm not ashamed to say that her untimely death was due mostly in part to her battle with alcoholism, a factor that highly contributed to our abnormal parent/child relationship.
She was 53 and drank right up to the night she died. But the one thing that always made her happy, apart from a drink, was listening to, talking about, or watching Neil Diamond. And Christmas, hands down, was her favorite time of year. Later on, as she got older, and sicker, she would try to play it off like she didn't care or that the holiday's were a hassle, but put a live decorated tree in front of her, and play
"You make it feel like Christmas" by Mr. Diamond himself, and her face would light up brighter than that tree. And I'd almost forgotten about that wonderful trait of hers until I heard that song today.
Christmas was the only time of year where we were a family. My Grandma would come over for the week and help my mom bake and cook to prepare our home for company. My two brothers (who are fraternal twins) fought less, and while my grandma was over, mom wouldn't drink. I think she looked forward to that as much as us kids did, since Grandma acted as the self control my mom so desperately needed and wanted in her life.

My mom was able to see Neil live in concert a few times when his tours brought him to the Milwaukee area. Once, her friend Sally arranged to have a limo pick up my mom to take them to the concert! It was years before she stopped talking about that.

And I was fortunate enough to see Neil play at the MGM Grand in Vegas right before New Years. It was an awesome concert and I have my sweetheart, Kevin to thank for taking me to that! (Thats how you know a guy loves you. Everyone else was going to see Cirque De Soilel and Kevin surprised me with tickets to the Diamond concert!)
It was a great story that I got to share with my mom...she was so jealous!

Now, I've listened to some Diamond since my mom has passed away, and it never really hit me like it did today. I guess it really brought back a lot of those memories I had long since buried while trying to deal with her death, and then having to take control of all of her funeral arrangements and estate divisions. But thats a whole other blog post.

Though I don't claim to be one of those people that says they can "Feel" their departed loved ones with them, there are times my mom definitely shines through me. The inherited passion for Neil Diamond is one of the things my mom passed on to me that I will never lose. Corny as it may seem, his music always brings me back to her, and I can once again see that special smile only Neil could bring to her face, and I will always be grateful to him for that.