We finally had the opportunity to pay our respects to our friend Lew Wilson at the Winchendon Veterans Cemetery on June 7, 2021. Lew died on August 3, 2020 but Covid put everything on hold including our opportunities to play music with him.
Lew was a treasured member of our music jams. He had a deep catalog of songs which he would sing with his wife Betty. He told stories about the songs and the performers, many of which he knew from his time playing professionally. After Betty passed he put down his guitar but thankfully other musicians prevailed upon him to continue playing at the jams. Music was medicine to him. I could see the healing transformation when he picked up the guitar. He didn’t die of Covid but the separation from his musical family was probably a contributing factor. We had to wait all these months to honor him.
After the ceremony I took the opportunity to visit with the family at the American Legion in Winchendon for some food and conversation. They had some great stories to tell about Lew and Betty. Lew wrote a number of songs, my favorite was Merry-Go-Round, a happy song that Lew wrote in a moment of despair. It is best to let him describe the circumstances.
https://youtu.be/sMAwqSjsY-4https://youtu.be/V3jnsETLSPo
