A Clinic-Day Playlist
We have had a clinic-day playlist for about three years.
It started by accident. I made a Spotify playlist for the drive to chemo. I called it "Morning Drive." It had six songs on it.
Three years later, it has 41 songs. It is no longer a chemo playlist. It is the soundtrack to a chapter of our family's life.
I am not going to share the whole playlist. It is too personal. But here is the rough shape:
Three songs my son chose. He picked them at ages 3, 4, and 5. They are all from kids' movies. They are all about being brave.
Two songs my daughter chose. They are both about animals. They are both joyful in a way only a 3-year-old's playlist additions can be.
A song my husband played the morning of diagnosis day, on the way to the ER. We did not know what we were driving toward. The song became part of the memory.
A song I played the morning we got the news that he was in remission. I almost cannot listen to it without crying.
A bunch of songs that just made the drive feel less hard. James Taylor. Tracy Chapman. Some country. Some quiet folk. Nothing intense. Nothing too sad.
One song we played on the drive home from his last chemo. We have only played it twice. We are saving it.
I am writing this on a Friday morning, listening to the playlist. We do not have clinic today. We have a survivorship appointment in a few weeks. The playlist will be there.
If you are a cancer family who has not made one yet, please consider making one. It does not have to be elaborate. It does not have to be impressive. It just has to be the songs that, when you hear them years later, will bring you back to the version of your family that drove to the hospital every Tuesday.
The drive is the drive. The music is the company.
Dina
Mom of Max | Founder, Maxwell’s Toy Shoppe
Childhood Cancer Advocate 💛
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