Sasha’s Music 

When Sasha was small, as we sat in church before the service, she would listen intently to the organ….then loudly imitate it in a high, sweet sound when it became silent.  She loved hearing me sing and play piano.  Music filled our home.  One day in the kitchen,  I was rehearsing with an orchestrated track, music coming from a boombox on the counter, as I sang with it while I fed her.  Rather than get up from the chair, I allowed the tape to run.  The next cut was the same song, but this time with my pre-recorded voice singing it.  Sasha, who usually showed only subtle indications of cognition, moved her head suddenly toward the boom box as soon as my voice joined the orchestra.  How could mom be singing to me here…then singing to me from over there while still sitting here?  It made me laugh, but I also knew it was a gift from God to me, illustrating that my little girl was inside that body, however impaired.

One Sunday afternoon in 1983, she was seizuring uncontrollably followed by deep sleep.  As I sat in the living room in sadness, my heart crying out to God, I wrote what became “Sasha’s Song.”  It was important to me not to write something filled with cliches and meaningless phrases.  I wanted to sing the truth of what was happening.  The result was this song, and it became the title song for my first album, “Sasha’s Song.”

Produced by John Innes, organist for the Billy Graham Crusades, it had great impact on all of us.  God was in that project.

“He is Able,” written by Jon Mohr is a song that still touches me to the core after all these years.  I had to record it.

And I always sang it to audiences, trying to bring hope to people who were in the middle of terribly difficult times, unable in that moment to see the hand of God.  

These two songs were featured at Sasha’s funeral in a video with pictures of Sasha at various stages in her life.

It is my prayer that they will comfort anyone who finds themselves on this page!