When I first read this challenge I thought how on earth will I ever choose  a piece of music as I have so many melodies in my head that evoke wonderful memories of times past and present and others that get my toes tapping and my body straining to jive, rumba or quickstep. Or should I choose something classical where the music fills your very being with a climactic type explosion as it reaches its height, such as Beethoven’s 1812 Overture and then it came to me in a flash, however, that perhaps the piece of music which is highly emotive for me is Chris Isaaks’ There She Goes.

This is the piece of music that I have chosen for my funeral.

I first heard it when the album Forever Blue was released in the early 1990s. It was not the most popular song on the album but to me it was a well executed piece of musicianship with lyrics that struck a resonance within me. It travelled with me and gathered memories of happy times along the way. Times of road trips up and down the eastern seaboard of Australia, a couple of camping trips to Switzerland and France and many, many  long, drawn-out meals where we would solve the problems of the world over a good bottle of red. On my mornings alone, when my husband had gone to golf, I would put it in the player, turn the volume up and sing along as I did the housework.

I have always had a morbid fascination with death. I guess it comes from being exposed at an early age to death. As a child I sometimes had to attend funerals as my mother played the organ and my father conducted the service. I was fascinated by coffins and people sleeping in them but I didn’t really understand the concept of death. This understanding came during my nursing training and I became a bit obsessive about it. I had decided that the perfect ending for me would be to float in a formalin filled fish tank in the lounge room.  Not surprisingly this idea was not taken up with any enthusiasm and so I tossed up between burial and cremation.

Chris Isaacs’ song gave me the answer for the first time. I would be cremated and as the coffin starts to slide out of view the song would start.

There she goes there she goes.