Sh! Whisper! Who Dares?

     On Wednesday night of my stay in Chapel Hill with the Nelsons, Sarah and John went to the Monti – a storytelling event in Durham. Sarah was hoping her name would be pulled from the hat to tell a story, and it was! In the meantime, I was at their house taking care of Virginia and Horatio. They have a routine at night that they are used to, so when I said it was bedtime, Ms V and Mr. H did not put up more than the age-appropriate fuss.

A gift from my brothers when I was in college!

     The kids got themselves ready for bed, and I think they brushed their teeth. I sat down in the reading corner as each picked out a book for me. It then stretched to two books each. I went downstairs to fill their drinking glasses as the kids began to protest actually having to get into bed.

      I told them that once they were lying down, I would sing to them a song that I used to sing to their Mom and Aunt 'Manda every night when they went to bed.

     Well that piqued V and H's curiosity. Soon Virginia was under her covers on the bed which is the same bed her own mother slept in growing up. And Horatio was lying face down on the floor – it is where he usually ends up napping in the afternoons and where he spent most of his nights when I was there. He was on a blanket and pillow, and there were plenty more blankets all around (and his bed) as well as stuffed animals including Horatio's particular attachment these days, a snowman!

     There is a song I used to sing to Sarah and Amanda every night at bedtime after reading a book or a chapter. It is a poem by A.A. Milne put to tune about Christopher Robin saying his bedtime prayers. I have the song on my 4 Sides of Melanie album – I know I would not have been familiar with the poem otherwise even though I do know the Winnie the Pooh stories.

     So I sang Christopher Robin to Virginia and Horatio for the first time, and as I did, I traveled back in time to when Sarah was in that bed at that age, and Amanda was in her bed, (except when we lived in the house in Texas after Amanda turned three and she slept on the living room rug instead of in the bedroom because their bedroom was upstairs and one night Amanda fell down the stairs when she awoke and went looking for her Mom and Dad, and Bodie was not going to let that happen again!) I do not have a good voice, so I think the reason V and H gave my song such keen attention was because I had said it was something special I had done for their Mom and Aunt.

     The kids agreed to go to sleep after that. 

     Was it the words that relaxed them?

     Was it the melody that signaled the end of a beautiful day? 

     Was it the fact that if they closed their eyes and no longer protested the turning out of the light I would stop singing?

     I have come to realize that history is decided by the storyteller – Virginia and Horatio loved the song! And my times singing Christopher Robin will always be special to me!

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