Saying Goodbye (or Songs for Saddoes)

I was very fortunate last night to spend some time with the family that is the subject of an ongoing story for the newspaper. Dad's in the Army National Guard and he left for his Iraq deployment today, and last night they let me spend some time with them at home and sit in on their last meal as a family.

For the record. I didn't eat with them. There's something just a little too intimate about sharing a meal with someone, and as much as I like the family (I do really like the family, the kids are so great) I try to keep those work boundaries in place. I wouldn't want to alter the expectations of the family every time I visit.

So today they deployed and it was sad and all, but for the most part the immediate family (mom and kids) held it together pretty well. Which means I held it together pretty well (emotionally, photographically I was just all over the place). It wasn't until the first bus left and my subjects went home that I began to lose it. For whatever reason, the second bus of soldiers left about half an hour later, giving me some time to shoot different people for the news section, while saving the photos I took of my family for the project I'm working on.

That's where this woman and her three kids came in. I had a really hard time taking her photo, because she was just so devastated. While most family member tried to hold back tears, she went to a full on sob during one of her hugs goodbye. When her kids started crying I had to take a few steps back or I would have lost it.

Yeah I'm kind of a weenie. I get emotional and kind of enjoy the good cry now and then. So on my way home I played DJ in my car and played a line up of songs to kind of revel in the sadness during the half-hour drive back to the office. These aren't the greatest sad songs or anything, but they were the best sad songs I had in my car. Clearly the Brits are the go-to guys if you're looking for a little gloom.

1) Trouble by Coldplay - This was my actually my favorite sad song in college. When things got tough, I'd lock myself in my editor's office at the campus paper and listen to it on a continuous loop. Pathetic, I know.
2) Hide and Seek by Imogen Heap - I was a little put off by the minimalisticness of this song at first, but now it's what I love about it. I think it was used in some cheesy Fox teen drama when someone died, but I won't hold that against Heap.
3) Lately by David Gray - I was actually looking for his earlier CD, "White Ladder," which is chock full of depressing songs, but all I could find in my car was his most recent CD, "Life in Slow Motion." The man knows sad, so any CD of his will do.
4) You Turn Me Round by Aqualung - I probably had more time in the car to add one or two more songs to the list, but I got stuck on this one. It's so fantastically beautiful, and of course gloomy and sad.