Today’s post was written by Paul.

Tipper, Granny, and Paul

I first heard the song “Dreaming of a Little Cabin” in my bedroom as a kid. I thought I heard Flatt & Scruggs sing it, but apparently, they never recorded it. It may have been Mac Wiseman, who released a recording in 1952.

I liked it but didn’t pay much attention to it beyond the initial time or two that I heard it. To me, back then, it was more about returning to an old homeplace than it was about the loss of a dear parent. I experience it differently now.

I didn’t hear it again for many years. In the early 2000’s, I heard Jim and Jesse sing the song on a tape that my Uncle Ray made from some radio broadcasts he recorded. Apparently, Jim and Jesse recorded it in 1984. I remember being impressed with how full their harmony was on the song. I happened to play it on the system in my studio control room and discovered that someone (most likely Jesse or his son, Keith) was singing a third part (baritone), and that vocal track was turned down till it was barely audible. Though you would almost never know it was there, it bound the two main voices together like glue. I later discovered this was a technique they used on many recordings in the last 20 years of their career.

I need to explain the title of this post.

A few weeks ago, Tipper found a sheet of notebook paper in Granny’s house, on which she had written instructions for her funeral. To my surprise, at the top of the page, she wrote that she wanted this song sung at her funeral. If I recall correctly, it was one of only three songs on that piece of paper. Tipper gave me the paper. I placed it in my Bible, intending to read the entire sheet closely in the next day or so. Unfortunately, I lost my Bible and haven’t found it in weeks of searching. I may have left it at a church in Bryson City, NC. I’ve since bought a new one.

While I wish I could find the Bible to get and read that piece of notebook paper, there was a card in the Bible (which Tipper also found in Granny’s house) that is more important. It’s a homemade greeting card from Granny. On the outside, there’s a photograph she took of three crocheted animals that she made. Seems like there was a tall, skinny rabbit, a bear, and another animal. She didn’t make them for me but as projects that she gave to family or friends. Inside the card, Granny wrote, “Never stop trying to be a good person. Love, Mom.” I don’t know the occasion for the card. It could have been for my birthday, but nowhere in the card did it say “happy birthday.” She may have just given it to me randomly (in 2012). I wanted to hang onto that card and use it as motivation. Hopefully, I’ll find the Bible, but if not, I can always remember what she wrote.

Either just before or just after Pap passed, Granny gave me a navy dress of hers, on a hanger, with clear plastic draped over it to keep it from getting dusty. She asked me to take it home and make sure that she was buried in it. I dutifully hung it in a wardrobe of mine. Ten years or so later, after she completed her radiation and chemo, she found that none of her dresses fit her, and she wanted something to wear to church that wouldn’t fall off her. I remembered the dress and brought it back up to her house. I believe that piece of notebook paper was clipped to the front of the dress. My guess is that she set it aside, and then Tipper found it among other papers.

Granny was buried in that navy dress, but we didn’t know about the other things she had written on that piece of paper. However, I know that her plans and preferences changed from what she wrote then, because she told me and Tipper that she only wanted the choir to sing at her funeral, not the person she had written down earlier. The choir sang “More About Jesus,” a song that Granny loved, and Rev. Paul Ray Morgan sang “Hand in Hand with Jesus,” per Granny’s request.

Though no one sang it at her funeral, I wanted to honor Granny’s original wish by singing this song in a video. As I said, I was surprised she chose it for her funeral, but a little research showed me that the great, prolific Albert E. Brumley wrote this song; therefore, it may have been in a hymnal that Granny’s church used in her youth. Also, Granny was extremely close to her mother, Gazzie Jenkins, so when she thought ahead to her own funeral, a reunification with her mother was probably at the forefront of her mind.

It took multiple tries to sing this song without choking up. It was usually the line, “she told me once again of Jesus” that got me. I was finally able to compartmentalize the feelings and finish the song. You can find many great versions of this song on YouTube. Here’s a sweet one that went viral nine years ago.

Paul

Original singles released on Spotify.

Original singles on YouTube.

Shepherd of My Soul (Album released in 2016).

The Wilson Brothers Words of Life Album released in the 70s.

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