The motivation for For You and Me has come from many places and spanned many
years. I have been surrounded by the military most of my life, both personally and
professionally. I am daughter, sister, wife, niece, aunt, cousin and friend of members in
all branches of the armed services. Although I wasn’t politically engaged during the
VietNam era, I never understood how people could treat our military so horribly upon
their return. How people could treat anyone so horribly! It obviously left an impression
on me, because when we went to war again, my first instinct was to do what I could to
let the military I knew, know they were appreciated. I sent packages and letters to some
I knew and some I didn’t. I organized letter and care package drives from my church.
The final motivations for the song came in 2008 and 2009, when as a Red Cross
Volunteer, I attended the wakes and/or arrival ceremonies of of Sgt John Sigsbee,
Lance Cpl. Daniel J. Geary and Lance Cpl. Blaise Oleski. I did not know any of these
young men, but I felt compelled, as did many members of their communities, to pay my
respects and show my support. At each event, I was of course, saddened. However, I
was also uplifted by the support of the communities, and amazed by the strength of the
family members in the receiving lines. During this time I also came to know of the Patriot
Guard Riders (PGR). When I attended the wake, there was the PGR again, with their
“heads and flags held high”, silently standing and guarding the fallen hero and all those
gathered.
I stood in line at the funeral home and asked myself, “Why do I, and so many others, go
pay our respects to someone we don’t even know?” I went to my car and took out a
pen and paper tried to put my feelings into words. I sat there for a while, watching
people come and go, watching the American and Service flags waving in the breeze. I
went home, and thought not only about fallen heroes, but also of those who were
currently serving and those who have served, our Veterans. I managed to put the
thoughts and feelings together as a poem that was published in one of the local papers.
Friends, who know me as a singer and songwriter, asked “when are you putting that to
music”. I had never intended it to be a song, but I sat down one afternoon, and the tune
was there, simply and easily. A gift from God.
As I prepared to go into the studio, I kept feeling there should be a fiddle and a drum on
the song, along with the guitar, but I was not sure how. While brainstorming with my
husband John, he suggested I listen to the song The Minstrel Boy, from the Blackhawk
Down soundtrack. It was originally written by Thomas Moore to honor his friends who
were killed in the Irish Rebellion of 1798. It was also popular in the American Civil War
and WW I, and is still used sometimes at military funerals. The tune of The Minstrel Boy
is The Moreen, an old Irish air and it blended well with For You and For Me. After
recording, I learned from one of the local Gold Star families, the Oleski family, that it
was one of their fallen hero son Blaise’s favorite songs. Divine intervention once again.
I am truly blessed by the Gold Star families, not only locally, a but a few around the
country, that have become friends, and by all of the Veterans who have shared their
feelings about what the song means to them. I thank God for the opportunity to help
them.
My hope is that those who hear the song feel the mixed emotions, the sadness, the
patriotism, the thankfulness, and the honor, that I felt at these events and all of the
events that I have shared this song. I hope they remember those who have made the
ultimate sacrifice, those who have fought for our freedoms, and those who continue to
do so, I know I will never forget...they do it For You and For Me! God Bless our fallen,
our Gold Star families, our service members and our Veterans, and God Bless America!
