The sign above is from “Come Sail Away”, off the 1977 “Grand Illusion” album.

My mom passed away in early July, after a long battle with Alzheimer’s and Dementia.

One of her favorite bands was Styx, a byproduct of growing up in Chicago in the early 70’s. She would claim her whole life she saw them at Wheeling High School, long before they were famous. In her words, that was how she knew if you were a long-time fan or not.

On a family trip to Las Vegas and Arizona sometime in the mid ’90’s, we happened on a chance to see Styx on their “Return to Paradise” tour, the first time the original members of the band were back together in more than a decade. It was a first ‘real’ concert for us as a family, and a wonderful introduction to the band and their music.

We ended up going to the same show again when it came to Chicago, with much better seats the second time around. That show was turned into a concert album, and it’s just a wonderful idea that her voice is captured somewhere in that crowd for eternity.

My mom wasn’t an overly religious person. Born, baptized, confirmed Catholic, but never one to attend mass weekly nor have her religion a daily prominence in her life. She was Catholic in the best tradition, perhaps not in the best practice.

In an era where faith is measured in the repetition of verse or the constant proclamation of one’s god, it didn’t feel right to do the same for her remembrance. She didn’t wear her faith on her sleeve, it was a deeper part of her soul and her history. We chose a much more fitting statement for her services, one of memory and remembrance and impact.

There’s a funny thing about Alzheimer’s. You say goodbye many times, in different ways and different forms. When we reached the end of the journey, it was okay. I was traveling, and had some time to reflect, to go back and listen to some of her favorite music, to remember.

And the line that stuck with me the most was this one. This is the way I choose to remember her, letting life bring me moments that remind me of her presence in mine.

The song itself has had quite the life through the years, an anthem of the band’s through the 70’s and 80’s, getting new life in the 2000’s courtesy of South Park, coming around again a decade and a half later from the TV show Community. Reflections in the waves, indeed.