Posted 5-14-19
When I was just a little girlI asked my mother what will I be
Will I be pretty will I be rich
Here’s what she said to me:
Que Sera Sera Whatever will be will be The future’s not ours to see Que Sera Sera What will be will be
When I grew up and fell in love
I asked my sweetheart what lies ahead
Will we have rainbows day after day
Here’s what my sweetheart said:
Que Sera Sera Whatever will be will be The future’s not ours to see Que Sera Sera What will be will be.
Now I have children of my own
They ask their mother what will I be
Will I be handsome will I be rich
I tell them tenderly:
Que Sera Sera Whatever will be will be The future’s not ours to see Que Sera Sera What will be will be Que Sera Sera….
– “Que Sera Sera” by Doris Day (April 3, 1922 – May 13, 2019 )
IMDB: The song was introduced in the Alfred Hitchcock film The Man Who Knew Too Much (1956), starring Doris Day and James Stewart in the lead roles.
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0049470/
Doris Mary Ann Kappelhoff, better known (and more comfortable for the width of the marquee) as Doris Day was the portrait of an American life well lived. She appeared in dozens of movies, recorded over 650 songs, had a hit TV show and won numerous awards including several lifetime achievement awards as well as the Presidential Medal of Freedom. She supported, religiously, animal rights with a passion that continued to the very end for this amazing, precious talent. According to People Magazine Online, Mrs. Day requested firmly in her will and to her friends and counsel that she have ” No funeral, no memorial and no [grave] marker”. She hated death for many reasons including that she would be separated from her pooches. Doris Day will be sorely missed. 🙁
Mom hasn’t always been a “Que Sera Sera kind of lady” in her life well lived. She, quite the opposite, was kind of a worry-wart for much of her life. I don’t feel like in any sense she was a self-serving worrier. She really wanted her husband, kids, grandkids and beyond to have good lives and she thrived when they thrived. Even now I sense that she lightens the mood with a fun raspberry at the right time to bring out a smile in both of us. Later in life she reaffirmed the Christian faith of her youth and was Baptized within the last 5 years. She rests comfortably in these hard times (in her soul) knowing that she has an eternal home with her parents and grandparents whom she deeply loved. She, in a sense, would tell you today if she could clearly that “What (God’s) will be will be” in her last season of life. She rests, not on some vacillating, nebulous karmic force or on blind fate, but on the solid as a rock Will of her Creator who loves her.
Knowing this fact takes the sting out of yesterday’s appointment with the medical team of one. Our doctor strongly recommended that we enlist the services of hospice care for mom. After the initial shock of hearing this word, we regrouped… My sister asked his opinion as to whether it is safe for her to take an upcoming trip, and he responded that the decision when the end would come is above his pay grade and “what will be will be”…but he was more comfortable giving her a more educated opinion/guess next week after some tests come back. I will keep you posted. 🙁
Quick note about hospice care: Hospice doesn’t mean that their days are numbered on one hand, as in some sort of death sentence…it just means that their days are numbered shorter than most of the rest of us. (Editor’s note: we are all terminal…nobody gets out of here alive…) Most hospice workers I have met are blessed with a sweet spirit and a strong resolve. The are granted most any legal tool to make the patient’s last days and weeks of life as pleasant and pain-free as possible. My hope is always for a miracle, but my plan and my eternal hope rests in Christ and in heaven, the same place mom’s hope resides.
So to this end, I leave you and Doris with a new ending for this gem of a song with my dear mom and the Sweet 17 in mind:
When my time fades sadly away
I bow in awe, I ask the Lord
Will you protect them, when I am gone?
With love He said to me:
Que Sera Sera?
Their futures are safe with Me,
Que Sera Sera?
#EndALZ