In recent years of traveling the four to six hours to Mama & Papa’s,  the time in the car alone has been very fruitful as a time to reflect, remembering, and then writing. On one such trip, I was recalling days long ago when my adult children were…children, and we would go to the beach and camp and just be together. I was remembering a day when we walked along the beach in the early evening and stood watching the stars come out while listening to the music of the waves breaking on the beach.

I remembered a moment with Emily, only four or five at the time holding my hand and loving to stand at the shoreline to dig her toes into the sand as the waves came and went. I wondered if she remembers that time.  Probably not. But I wanted her to remember it as fondly as I do. Unfortunately, one can’t make another remember but, one can provide a word or phrase that when thought or said would bring everything back as if in the present.

PapaLolliDattiDawterEmilee was written in three phases.  The first was in the car that weekend to Mom & Pop’s where I listened to the first verse and refrain play over and over.  But there was something missing which, as it turned out was the need to have Emily, as an adult, write her own grown-up verse as a sort of recollection and recognition.  So I contacted Emily who lived in New York at the time and asked her to write a verse in double time so that we could sing together at different tempos.

The word, “PapaLolliDattiDawterEmilee” is something we came up with together to remind us that no matter how far apart we are, we will always hear each other singing in our hearts.

I really don’t think I explained that very well.  It doesn’t matter.  Hopefully, you’ll listen to the song with this bit of background and be able to understand the feelings, joy, bliss, and rapture I feel whenever I hear Emily singing in my heart.