TWO SONGS FOR JAMIE

I wish you could meet Jamie, an angel who became my friend. She's a sufferer of EB, a congenital skin disease that has mangled her thin hands into sore stumps, and every movement gives her pain. This picture reveals she was featured in the ENSIGN magazine, March 2006. Her mother, Sheila Gibson, my best friend from my early teens, begged me to please come and stay with her then 19-year-old daughter, and write a song for her.

Best friends, Sheila, age 16, Shirley, my sister, age 15 and Kaye Starr, age 17, 1961

At Sheila's request, I began my work on Jamie's favorite and most comforting hymn, "Abide with Me; 'Tis Eventide." Jamie was always talking about the Savior. She would say, "If I willingly endure as Jesus did, I can help fulfill His plan and be a part of His great work." She was surrounded by an aura of light; I could almost see it.

Jamie in 2006

I believe that the most beautiful modulations and heavenly passages that can be heard in this piece came because Jamie would lay on the couch beside me while I composed it. I believe angels were in the room at the time. Why not? She was there, and they were helping her. Possessing the most beautifully angelic and etherial voice, Jamie could honestly sing the words, "Thy walk today with me has made my heart within me burn, as I communed with Thee."

This is the original, written at the Gibson home, Pleasant Grove, Utah, in 1997. Later I created a Male Quartet with SATB Choir arrangement of this piece that was recorded and paid for by Wade Cook, public benefactor and promoter of good music. It's heard on the "Sacred Classics" recording that I have spoken of earlier. It's a favorite on that album.
Jamie loves to watch the rain because it makes her happy. Any kind of rain, loud, soft, black rain or white rain, makes her reflect, think and then pray. She wanted me to write a song about rain. When she went to Ricks College, Idaho, to school, I found myself spending more time at the Rock Chapel by my home in Layton to be alone. There, in a sacred room, I placed my hands on the piano keys and asked the Lord to specifically move my hands to sound like Jamie's rain. He did!

Here it is: Jamie's rain, using the melody of "There is an Hour of Peace and Rest." Exactly! That's what rain did for Jamie. It gave her an hour of peace and rest, and allowed her to commune again with her Savior.

Here's the original piano score. These notes represent a thunder storm. I stand back and look at this arrangement. I'm amazed how it all came together. I could never have done it alone. Jamie, this one's for you.

This was also recorded by Wade Cook. It's a wonderful arrangement! Thank you, Jamie!Quoting from the ENSIGN article: "Jamie was the second of Jim and Sheila Gibsons' children born with EB. Her older brother Ben also suffered from the disease and passed away at age 19. Most people with EB are not expected to live past the age of 30, as the sores and scar tissue often lead to infection, malnutrition, and skin cancer."

Jamie and Taylor Hartley were sealed in the Mount Timpanogos Utah Temple December 9, 2005. Jamie didn't know she would ever have the blessing of marriage in this life.

Jamie is an angel living on earth. Through her, I have had the privilege to be in the presence of a heavenly spirit, who changed my life and helped me make heavenly music.
Jamie's parents are two more angels dwelling on the earth. Jim Gibson says, "Just a couple weeks before Ben's death, Jamie and Ben both received their endowments in the Salt Lake Temple. For the last time in this life, we had all four of our children together with us, and in the celestial room we embraced in a family hug. It was a special highlight of my life."

Brent and Kaye Starr Heninger, left, with Sheila and Jim Gibson, 2005

We're still best friends.